Images of Betelgeuse with VLTI/MATISSE across the Great Dimming

Abstract

From Nov. 2019 to May 2020, the red supergiant star Betelgeuse experienced an unprecedented drop of brightness in the visible domain called the great dimming event. Large atmospheric dust clouds and large photospheric convective features are suspected to be responsible for it. To better understand the dimming event, we used mid-infrared long-baseline spectro-interferometric measurements of Betelgeuse taken with the VLTI/MATISSE instrument before (Dec. 2018), during (Feb. 2020), and after (Dec. 2020) the GDE. We present data in the 3.98 to 4.15\,$\mu$m range to cover SiO spectral features molecules as well as adjacent continuum. We have employed geometrical models, image reconstruction, as well as radiative transfer models to monitor the spatial distribution of SiO over the stellar surface. We find a strongly in-homogeneous spatial distribution of SiO that appears to be looking very different between our observing epochs, indicative of a vigorous activity in the stellar atmosphere. The contrast of our images is small in the pseudo-continuum for all epochs, implying that our MATISSE observations support both cold spot and dust cloud model.

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• Episodic mass loss in the very luminous red supergiant [W60] B90 in the Large Magellanic Cloud
• The Great Dimming of Betelgeuse: the photosphere as revealed by tomography over the past 15 years
• Investigating episodic mass loss in evolved massive stars: III. Spectroscopy of dusty massive stars in three northern galaxies
• The Red and Yellow Hypergiants
• X TrA through the eyes of MATISSE: More evidence of clumpy molecular layers around C-type asymptotic giant branch stars