Visible supergiant red star, Betelgeuse appears to be shrinking rapidly.
The red supergiant star Betelgeuse, the bright reddish star in the constellation Orion, has steadily shrunk over the past 15 years.
Berkeley's Infrared Spatial Interferometer on Mt. Wilson in Southern California shows that Betelgeuse has shrunk in diameter by more than 15 percent since 1993.
Despite Betelgeuse's diminished size, its visible brightness, or magnitude has shown no significant dimming.
Some theorize that it might go supernova in the near future.
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