Here is the first direct picture of the surface of a star other than our Sun. Taken by the Hubble Space Telescope in 1995, the atmosphere of Betelgeuse reveals some unexpected features, including a large bright hotspot visible below the center. While Betelgeuse is cooler than the Sun , it is more massive and over 1000 times larger. If placed at the center of our Solar System , it would extend past the orbit of Jupiter . Betelgeuse is nearing the end of its life and will become a supernova in a perhaps a few tens of millions of years.
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