SOFIA upGREAT/FIFI-LS Emission-line Observations of Betelgeuse during the Great Dimming of 2019/2020

We report NASA-DLR SOFIA upGREAT circumstellar [O i ] 63.2 μ m and [C ii ] 157.7 μ m emission profiles and FIFI-LS [O i ] 63.2 μ m, [O i ] 145.5 μ m, and [C ii ] 157.7 μ m fluxes obtained shortly after Betelgeuse’s 2019/2020 Great Dimming event. Haas et al. noted a potential correlation between the [O i ] 63.2 μ m flux and V magnitude based on three Kuiper Airborne Observatory observations made with the CGS and FIFI instruments. The FIFI observation was obtained when V ≃ 0.88 and revealed a 3 σ non-detection at a quarter of the previous CGS flux measurement made when V ≃ 0.35. A potential explanation could be a change in dust-gas drag heating by circumstellar silicates caused by variations in the photospheric radiation field. SOFIA observations provide a unique test of this correlation because the V -band brightness went to its lowest value on record, V ≃ 1.61, with the SOFIA observations being made when V FIFI−LS ≃ 1.51 and V upGREAT ≃ 1.36. The upGREAT spectra show a [O i ] 63.2 μ m flux larger than previous space observatory measurements obtained when V ≃ 0.58. The profile is consistent with formation in the slower, more turbulent inner S1 outflow, while the [C ii ] 157.7 μ m profile is consistent with formation farther out in the faster S2 outflow. Modeling of dust-gas drag heating, combined with 25 yr of Wing three-filter and V photometry, reveals that it is unlikely that the S1 circumstellar envelope and [O i ] 63.2 μ m fluxes are dominated by the dust-gas drag heating and that another heating source is also active. The [O i ] 63.2 μ m profile is hard to reconcile with existing outflow velocity models.