What visual description characterized Betelgeuse when astronomers captured its first resolved close-up image?
Answer
A mottled, uneven orange disk
The breakthrough image of Betelgeuse revealed that the star is far from being a uniform celestial object when viewed at high resolution. Instead of appearing as a perfect sphere, the image showed a distinctly mottled and uneven disk structure, rendered in shades of orange. Scientists identified that these large, clearly defined patches were giant convection cells, similar in process to the Sun's granules but vastly scaled up. This uneven glow confirms the star is a monstrous sphere of ceaseless cosmic boiling, contradicting the simple point source view from Earth.
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