Curious.

Forums General Discussion Betelgeuse Curious.

#581855
Dr Paul Leyland
Participant

If the temperature had dropped I would expect the continuum to have shifted too — Wien´s law — though as that goes only as the first power of (1/T) perhaps the effect might be too small to be easily noticeable. I certainly haven´t noticed it from your spectra but there again, I don´t have much experience in these things.

I´m now wondering whether a neutral grey filter has interposed itself between us and the star.  Something akin to the clouds of dust which appear in the atmospheres of RCB variables. The typical particle size would need to be significantly larger than the wavelength of light or we would see severe reddening.

Curious indeed.