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Betelgeuse, a nearby red supergiant, is a runaway star with a powerfulstellar wind that drives a bow shock into its surroundings. This picture hasbeen challenged by the discovery of a dense and almost static shell that isthree times closer to the star than the bow shock and has been decelerated bysome external force. The two physically distinct structures cannot both beformed by the hydrodynamic interaction of the wind with the interstellarmedium. Here we report that a model in which Betelgeuse's wind is photoionizedby radiation from external sources can explain the static shell withoutrequiring a new understanding of the bow shock. Pressure from the photoionizedwind generates a standing shock in the neutral part of the wind and forms analmost static, photoionization-confined shell. Other red supergiants shouldhave significantly more massive shells than Betelgeuse, because thephotoionization-confined shell traps up to 35 per cent of all mass lost duringthe red supergiant phase, confining this gas close to the star until itexplodes. After the supernova explosion, massive shells dramatically affect thesupernova lightcurve, providing a natural explanation for the many supernovaethat have signatures of circumstellar interaction.

Interacting supernovae from photoionization-confined shells around red supergiant stars