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Astronomers have used the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope to observe giant "bubbles" (granulation cells/patterns) extending from the surface of the red giant π1 Gruis (aka Pi1 Gruis):
Astronomers using ESO's Very Large Telescope have for the first time directly observed granulation patterns on the surface of a star outside the Solar System — the ageing 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, which has 350 times the diameter of the Sun. Each cell covers more than a quarter of the star's diameter and measures about 120 million kilometres across. These new results are being published this week in the journal Nature.
Located 530 light-years from Earth in the constellation of Grus (The Crane), π1 Gruis is a cool red giant. It has about the same mass as our Sun, but is 350 times larger and several thousand times as bright. Our Sun will swell to become a similar red giant star in about five billion years.
An international team of astronomers led by Claudia Paladini (ESO) used the PIONIER instrument on ESO's Very Large Telescope to observe π1 Gruis in greater detail than ever before. They found that the surface of this red giant has just a few convective cells, or granules, that are each about 120 million kilometres across — about a quarter of the star's diameter. Just one of these granules would extend from the Sun to beyond Venus. The surfaces — known as photospheres — of many giant stars are obscured by dust, which hinders observations. However, in the case of π1 Gruis, although dust is present far from the star, it does not have a significant effect on the new infrared observations.
Also at EarthSky.
Large granulation cells on the surface of the giant star π1 Gruis (DOI: 10.1038/nature25001) (DX)
Open access version of the above paper: Convective pattern on the surface of the giant star π1 Gruis
Related: Very Large Telescope Interferometer Captures Best Ever Image of Another Star (Antares)
ALMA Captures Best-Ever Image of Red Giant W Hydrae
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 22 2017, @06:39AM (1 child)
oh no, not the bubble. let's shoot something there and pop it. who's got elon's number?
(Score: 2) by bob_super on Friday December 22 2017, @08:23PM
Let me move to the other side of the galaxy, before you pop the biggest zit ever witnessed.
(Score: 3, Informative) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Friday December 22 2017, @07:08AM (1 child)
Five billion years from now the Sun will swell up and swallow the Earth
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 22 2017, @07:14AM
Don't you worry your little head about the sun. Sun don't kill earth - I do.
(Score: 0, Flamebait) by noyou on Friday December 22 2017, @07:45AM (5 children)
It is kind of interesting but none of it can every (at least in many human lifetimes) be verified, sooo I think alot of this like all of academia is self justifying nonsense, it might be true but it isn't much better than my forgotten realms campaign in terms of verifiability
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 22 2017, @07:52AM (1 child)
"Nobody will ever build a better telescope! Nobody will ever observe this star again!"
- Mr. Peanut Gallery
(Score: 1) by noyou on Friday December 22 2017, @08:11AM
Your wrong my very large telescope will invade your galaxy
(Score: 2) by mhajicek on Friday December 22 2017, @09:24AM
And people once believed the Atlantic couldn't be crossed.
The spacelike surfaces of time foliations can have a cusp at the surface of discontinuity. - P. Hajicek
(Score: 3, Touché) by khallow on Friday December 22 2017, @11:30AM
When you have a population of somewhere around 100 billion stars in the Milky Way alone and pretty good models of how stars evolve that happen to follow accurately the observed traits of said stars, then you can do better than "none of it can be verified".
(Score: 2) by realDonaldTrump on Thursday January 04 2018, @08:53AM
They don't know. They said "don't watch the Eclipse without the special glasses, you'll go blind!" I watched it without the special glasses, I didn't go blind.