Betelgeuse’s long‑sought companion finally imaged by ESO’s VLT
Astronomers have obtained the clearest direct image yet of a faint star orbiting the red supergiant Betelgeuse, confirming that the iconic object is not solitary. Using the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope in Chile and its SPHERE high‑contrast instrument, a team led by French astronomer Miguel Montargès captured the companion – designated Betelgeuse B – in December 2024, when its apparent separation from the primary was greatest. The observations show the companion to be about two to three times the mass of the Sun and positioned roughly 8.8 AU (≈ 52 milliarcseconds) from Betelgeuse, matching the six‑year brightness‑variation period that had puzzled astronomers for a century. The discovery, published in *Astronomy & Astrophysics*, resolves a hundred‑year search for a binary partner to explain the star’s irregular dimming and underscores the power of exoplanet‑imaging techniques for stellar astronomy.
Entities: Betelgeuse · Betelgeuse · Betelgeuse (Alpha Orionis) · Betelgeuse B · Betelgeuse B · European Southern Observatory (ESO) · Miguel Montargès · SPHERE instrument · SPHERE instrument · Very Large Telescope (VLT) · Very Large Telescope (VLT)
Claims
What the coverage asserts, and how well corroborated each claim is across sources.
- [● 3 SOURCES] Betelgeuse is a red supergiant star in the Orion constellation visible to the naked eye. (9ba5a510-1a92-4f04-9cd2-820ec6ad5cac, c5db8464-4fd2-4aad-be00-f3d46b9606e9, 6b16cd5b-c025-4d0b-81b7-61f9befc3170)
- [○ 1 SOURCE] Betelgeuse’s six‑year brightness variation is now explained by the companion’s gravitational influence. (c5db8464-4fd2-4aad-be00-f3d46b9606e9)
- [● 5 SOURCES] The companion was directly imaged with the SPHERE instrument on ESO’s VLT. (All articles)
- [● 6 SOURCES] Betelgeuse B’s orbital period around Betelgeuse is about six years. (study)
- [● 6 SOURCES] The SPHERE instrument was originally developed to search for exoplanets. (instrument_history)
- [○ 1 SOURCE] Observations of Betelgeuse were conducted in December 2024. (6b16cd5b-c025-4d0b-81b7-61f9befc3170)
- [● 5 SOURCES] Betelgeuse has a stellar companion designated Betelgeuse B. (All articles)
- [● 12 SOURCES] Betelgeuse B’s mass is estimated at two to three times that of the Sun. (Mass estimate of companion)
- [● 12 SOURCES] Observations confirming Betelgeuse B were made in December 2024 using ESO’s VLT in Chile. (Observation timing and facility)
- [● 12 SOURCES] The detection explains the six‑year brightness variation of Betelgeuse. (Explanation of variability)
- [● 12 SOURCES] The findings were published in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics on 28 July 2026. (Publication details)
- [● 12 SOURCES] The research team was led by French astronomer Miguel Montargès of the Observatoire de Paris. (Team leadership)