Betelgeuse, the unusually dimming star, is smaller and closer than scientists thought - CNN

The size allowed the researchers to determine its distance from Earth at 530 light-years away, which is 25% closer than scientists previously thought, said László Molnár, study coauthor and research fellow at the Konkoly Observatory in Budapest, Hungary.

However, the researchers estimated this is still plenty of distance between the star and Earth to protect our planet from sustaining significant impacts when the star eventually explodes.

The bright star since late 2019 experienced two significant drops in brightness, which caused some astronomers to believe that the red giant star was nearing the end and could explode.

These dimming events occurred due to dust clouds and pulsations of the star, according to the researchers.

The superheated plasma was released from the star through a large convection cell, like hot bubbles rising in boiling water -- except hundreds of times the size of our sun.

"With Hubble, we see the material as it left the star's visible surface and moved out through the atmosphere, before the dust formed that caused the star to appear to dim," said Andrea Dupree, lead researcher and associate director of The Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian, in a statement.