“It could have been a white dwarf. It could have been a neutron star<\/a>. And those are very, very different objects,” says astrophysicist Anna O’Grady<\/a> of Carnegie Mellon University in the US. “If it was one of those objects, it would point to a very different evolutionary history for the system.”<\/p>\n Related: It’s Official: Betelgeuse Has a Binary ‘Twin’, And It’s Already Doomed<\/a><\/p>\n Betelgeuse<\/a>, a red supergiant star<\/a> thought to be about 548 light-years away in the constellation of Orion, has long been a bit of a puzzle to astronomers. It’s a bloated beast at the end of its lifespan, clocking in at a mass somewhere between 16.5 and 19 times<\/a> that of our Sun, but a radius of around 764 times the Sun’s.<\/p>\n One enduring mystery is its brightness fluctuations. It brightens and dims on several cycles, one of which seemed consistent with a binary companion on a likely six-year orbit suggested by Betelgeuse’s repeating pattern.<\/p>\n This orbit, scientists calculated, would place the companion at an ideal observing position in December 2024. So, at that time, several telescopes pointed at the star to see if a companion revealed itself.<\/p>\n The resulting gamut of images revealed the companion<\/a>, officially designated \u03b1 Ori B and nicknamed Siwarha, for the first time.<\/p>\n During that flurry of observations, X-ray images were taken using the Chandra X-ray Observatory. If the object were a white dwarf or neutron star, it should emit X-radiation as it siphons material from its red giant companion.<\/p>\n O’Grady and her colleagues found no sign of X-rays in the Chandra data. Even assuming that the wind gusting out of Betelgeuse had obscured some of the X-rays, the non-detection rules out a white dwarf or neutron star. Instead, the researchers think Siwarha is a young F-type star<\/a> possibly still settling into the main sequence.<\/p>\n If this is the case, both stars probably formed together about 10 million years ago; but, because more massive stars burn up their lifespans much more quickly than smaller ones, Betelgeuse is nearing the end of its days, while Siwarha’s are yet to fully begin.<\/p>\n This, actually, is quite mind-boggling. When stars are born together, models suggest their masses should be closer to each other. The configuration of the Betelgeuse binary doesn’t fit the playbook: Siwarha is around our Sun’s size or smaller, dwarfed by its massive companion.<\/p>\n “This opens up a new regime of extreme mass ratio binaries,” O’Grady says<\/a>. “It’s an area that hasn’t been explored much because it’s so difficult to find them or to even identify them like we were able to do with Betelgeuse.”<\/p>\n![\"YouTube](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/1760557210_419_0.jpg\")
frameborder=”0\u2033 allow=”accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share” referrerpolicy=”strict-origin-when-cross-origin” allowfullscreen><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/betelgeuse-siwarha.jpg\")
The location of Betelgeuse and Siwarha in Orion. (International Gemini Observatory\/NOIRLab\/NSF\/AURA<\/a>)<\/p>\n![\"Mid](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Mid-Article-Promo-Astro-642x272.jpg\")
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