The stars in our distant Milky Way galaxy are their long-term committed relationship with each other. Yet there is one star that astrologers and scientists have identified that likes to eat its companion. Unlike the solitary sun, the stars revolve around each other in a celestial marriage called the binary system.
Last week, researchers described one such marriage gone wrong. Clearly, there’s a duo that borders on the extreme, with the pair circling around each other every 51 minutes. This is the fastest known orbital period for a rare class of binary stars.
The two stars, now rivals, are located about 3,000 light-years from Earth in the direction of the constellation of Hercules, a light-year being the distance traveled by light in one year, or 9.5 trillion kilometers. .
Class of “Cataclysmic Variables” Stars Linked to Scandal
Astrologers have linked the conflicting stars to a class of binary stars called “Cataclysmic Variables”. These variables consist of a star similar to our sun orbiting near what they call a white dwarf. It is essentially a hot, compact core of a scorched star.
The terminology cataclysmic and variable refers to the fact that this brightness changes drastically – by a factor of 10,000 or more in some cases and their combined brightness varies over time when viewed from Earth respectively.
The distance between these two stars has shrunk over millions of years. They are now closer to each other than the Moon is to Earth.
Kevin Burdge, an astrophysicist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and lead author of the study, said: “Imagine if the moon crossed the sky 10 times a night. That’s the kind of speed we’re talking about.”
There are over a thousand known cataclysmic variables, although only a dozen have orbital periods of less than 75 minutes.
The proximity of the stars does not justify a committed relationship
Although astrologers have noted that the stars are close to each other, this does not necessarily mean that they are nice to each other. For example, the white dwarf mercilessly siphons off material from its partner.
The temperature of this large star is about the same as that of the sun. However, this is only about 10% of the diameter of the sun. It’s roughly the size of the largest planet in our solar system, Jupiter.
The white dwarf has a dense mass about 56% that of our sun. Its diameter is about 1.5 times that of the Earth.
Burdge said: “It’s an old pair of stars, where one of them is gone – when stars die of old age, they become white dwarfs – but then that remnant started eating its mate.”
“Basically, they’ve been linked for 8 billion years in a binary orbit. And now, just before the second can complete its stellar life cycle and become a white dwarf as stars normally do – evolving into a type of star called a red giant – the remnant of the first star’s white dwarf interrupted the end of the mate’s life cycle and began to slowly consume it,” he added.
Stars in a galaxy composed of hydrogen with less helium
Researchers have identified that most stars in our distant galaxy are composed primarily of hydrogen, with lesser amounts of helium and other elements.
The larger of the two stars in this binary is exceptionally rich in helium and is already aging.
This is so not only because its companion has nibbled hydrogen from its outer layers, but also because it has plenty of this element in its core thanks to the slow process of fusing hydrogen atoms into helium in its thermonuclear cauldron.
Because its size physically distorted it, the larger star is bent into a teardrop shape. This then causes the binary system to periodically brighten and fade partially rather than spherically. This is due to the gravitational tug of the white dwarf.
Although the 51 minutes of this binary system is fast, it is not a record compared to other classes of binaries. The fastest known orbital period among binaries is just 5 minutes and 21 seconds, with two white dwarfs orbiting each other.
Burge said, “There are tons of wild things going on in space”,
The researcher used data from the Palomar Observatory in California and telescopes in Hawaii and the Canary Islands to analyze the results.
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