"Fading from View: Examining the Eruption of a Colossal Milky Way Star"

Astronomers from Georgia State University's CHARA Array have captured close-up images of the massive star RW Cephei, which recently experienced a dramatic fading event, providing new insights into its behavior. The star, located approximately 16,000 light years from Earth, is a cool hypergiant and had faded to about one-third of its normal brightness, prompting scientists to investigate the cause. Observations and intelligent algorithms revealed that a grand eruption launched a gas cloud from the star, blocking a large fraction of its light from view. The findings were presented at the American Astronomical Society meeting and published in The Astronomical Journal, shedding light on the troubled surroundings of RW Cephei.