An article published in the journal “Nature” reports a study on the dimming of the star Betelgeuse that happened between the end of 2019 and the first quarter of 2020 that suggested that its explosion in a supernova was imminent. A team of researchers led by Miguel Montargès of the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven in Belgium used ESO’s VLT to obtain images of Betelgeuse in December 2019 to compare with one from January 2019 and other subsequent images. The results confirm those of a previous study concluding that a gigantic mass of very hot plasma has risen from the surface of Betelgeuse. The plasma moved away, cooling and turning into dust that covered the star’s surface, reducing its brightness to a third of normal.