Direct ultraviolet imaging and spectroscopy of betelgeuse

Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, 60 Garden Street, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA

Abstract

Direct images of Betelgeuse were obtained over a span of 4 years with the Faint Object Camera on the Hubble Space Telescope. These images reveal the extended ultraviolet continuum emission (~2 times the optical diameter), the varying overall ultraviolet flux levels and a pattern of bright surface continuum features that change in position and appearance over several months or less. Concurrent photometry and radial velocity measures support the model of a pulsating star, first discovered in the ultraviolet from IUE. Spatially resolved HST spectroscopy reveals a larger extention in chromospheric emissions of Mg II as well as the rotation of the supergiant. Changing localized subsonic flows occur in the low chromosphere that can cover a substantial fraction of the stellar disk and may initiate the mass outflow.