During the so-called Great Dimming of Betelgeuse, the star was 10 times darker than usual, Miguel Montargès from the Observatoire de Paris, France and colleagues report in a paper published in the latest issue of the journal Nature.

The study includes new analysis of images taken in 2019 and 2020 of the star, which is just over 700 light-years away from Earth, showing that during its Great Dimming, Betelgeuse was actually being obscured by its own stellar exhalations.

The observations of Betelgeuse seem to show the Great Dimming was actually caused by just such a mass loss incident.

The giant star is still expected to go supernova sometime in the next 100,000 years, so keep an eye on the constellation Orion the hunter, where you'll find Betelgeuse shining brightly (usually) as one of its shoulders.