Now in a new study, astronomers believe they may have figured out why this happened. He figured it was two cycles of Betelgeuse's normal dimming that happened to come together to form a deeper dimming. In the study, astronomers came up with four scenarios that could account for Betelgeuse's dimming:A "potentially local" decrease in temperature that made it fainter. This image shows the location of the red supergiant star Betelgeuse in the constellation of Orion. Risinger (skysurvey.org))Instead, they believe that some time before the Great Dimming, the star released a bubble of gas.

Source: CBC News June 16, 2021 16:46 UTC