Sat Mar 23, 2024 11:33 pm by globalturbo
https://youtu.be/urRySkCb3OQ
nemesis maturity
Published on Jan 25, 2019
While testing a new subsystem on the SPHERE planet-hunting instrument on ESO’s Very Large Telescope, astronomers were able to capture dramatic details of the turbulent stellar relationship in the binary star R Aquarii with unprecedented clarity — even compared to observations from Hubble. Years of observation have uncovered the peculiar story behind the binary star R Aquarii. The larger of the two stars, the red giant, is a type of star known as a Mira variable. At the end of their life, these stars start to pulsate, becoming 1000 times as bright as the Sun as their outer envelopes expand and are cast into the interstellar void. The death throes of this vast star are already dramatic, but the influence of the companion white dwarf star transforms this intriguing astronomical situation into a sinister cosmic spectacle. The white dwarf — which is smaller, denser and much hotter than the red giant — is flaying material from the outer layers of its larger companion. The jets of stellar material cast off by this dying giant and white dwarf pair can be seen here spewing outwards from R Aquarii. Occasionally, enough material collects on the surface of the white dwarf to trigger a thermonuclear nova explosion, a titanic event which throws a vast amount of material into space. R Aquarii lies only 650 light-years from Earth — a near neighbour in astronomical terms — and is one of the closest symbiotic binary stars to Earth. As such, this intriguing binary has received particular attention from astronomers for decades. https://www.eso.org/public/news/eso1840/ https://www.aanda.org/articles/aa/pdf...
