The boiling surface of giant star Betelgeuse can create an illusion

Recent observations of Betelgeuse, a star in the constellation Orion, have created a mystery about the red supergiant star. They suggest that it spins much faster than a star of its size should be able to do.

Now a team from the Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics, led by Ph.D. student Jing-Ze Ma, may have an explanation for why Betelgeuse appears to be spinning so incredibly fast. Perhaps, the researchers say, it's actually an illusion created by the star's violently boiling surface.

Ma and colleagues think the star's bubbling surface can be mistaken for rotation, even by the most advanced ...