Betelgeuse's odd recent dimming was caused by a huge cloud of material that the supergiant star blasted into space, a new study suggests.

The bright star Betelgeuse, which forms the shoulder of the constellation Orion (The Hunter), is about 11 times more massive than the sun but 900 times more voluminous.

The researchers studied the star in 2019 and 2020 using NASA's iconic Hubble Space Telescope.

Hubble's observations from September through November 2019 revealed huge amounts of material moving from Betelgeuse's surface to its outer atmosphere at tremendous speeds — about 200,000 mph (320,000 km/h).

During this three-month-long outburst, Betelgeuse lost about twice as much material to space from its southern hemisphere as it normally does, study team members said.

It's unclear what caused the fall 2019 outburst.

The supergiant star expands and contracts on a 420-Earth-day cycle.

Strassmeier measured the velocity of gas on Betelgeuse's surface using an automated telescope at the Leibniz Institute and found that the outburst occurred during the star's expansion phase.

Dupree plans to continue studying Betelgeuse with Hubble, and other astronomers will doubtless keep close tabs on the star as well.

But the chance of the star going supernova anytime soon is pretty small."