Science in a Minute: Processes Thought to Have Dimmed Betelgeuse Could Be Doing the Same to VY Canis Majoris

Astronomers say they think the same mechanisms that caused the star Betelgeuse to dim last year are also dimming the red hypergiant star, VY Canis Majoris. Last August, astronomers, using the Hubble Space Telescope to observe Betelgeuse, found evidence that the star was ejecting so much material into space that it formed a dust cloud, which blocked all light coming from its surface.