Incredible Photo Of Red Giant Star π1 Gruis

The surface of the red giant star π1 Gruis
Astronomers using ESO’s Very Large Telescope have directly observed granulation patterns on the surface of a star outside the Solar System — the aging red giant π1 Gruis. This remarkable new image from the PIONIER instrument reveals the convective cells that make up the surface of this huge star. Each cell covers more than a quarter of the star’s diameter and measures about 120 million kilometers across.
This colorful image shows the sky around the bright pair of stars π1 Gruis (centre-right, very red) and π2 Gruis (centre-left, bluish-white). Just right of centre the bright spiral galaxy IC 5201 is also visible and many other fainter galaxies are scattered across this wide-field image from the Digitized Sky Survey 2.
Credit:
ESO/Digitized Sky Survey 2. Acknowledgement: Davide De Martin

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