The Mystery of the Shrinking Red Star

An image of Betelgeuse’s atmosphere observed at a wavelength of 7mm.
An image of Betelgeuse’s atmosphere observed at a wavelength of 7mm.

We cannot see what is not on our mental ‘map.’ Almost the entire visible universe is in the form of highly-conductive plasma but electrical discharge in plasma is nowhere on the map. The red supergiant star Betelgeuse, the bright reddish star in the constellation Orion, has steadily shrunk over the past 15 years, according to…