Astronomers have discovered a surprisingly lopsided disk surrounding the mysterious nearby star Beta Canis Minoris, thanks to a brand new "photonic lantern" device that could vastly improve the observing power of ground-based telescopes.
Beta Canis Minoris, also known as Gomeisa, is around 3.5 times more massive than the sun and is located approximately 162 light-years from Earth in the Canis Minor constellation, where it is visible to the naked eye at night. Despite its relative proximity to Earth, researchers still don't know much about it. For example, past research suggested it is a close binary system made up of two smaller stars orbiting one another in extreme proximity, but this has not yet been confirmed.
