Vampire star unleashes blazing light while eating its companion
- 4 years ago
WASHINGTON — Astronomers have spotted a strange white dwarf star that devours its captive companion and blazes intense light in a rare event called a "super-outburst."
NASA published the study in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.
NASA says that the retired Kepler telescope, which revolved around the sun to search for exoplanets, had captured the archival footage that made this discovery possible."
According to NASA's news release, the brown dwarf circles around the stellar vampire every 83 minutes at a distance of 400,000 km.
The white dwarf is about the size of the Earth, but its mass is equivalent to the Sun.
The little star's huge mass creates a powerful gravitational pull that sucks in matter from the brown dwarf which forms an accretion disk.
According to NASA, current theory speculates that when the accretion disk reaches a critical mass, its outer edge experiences gravitation resonance with the orbiting star.
The resonance heats up the accretion disk, raising the temperature from a normal high of 5,300 degrees Celcius to a peak of 11,700 degrees.
The study says that the enormous heat build up results in the blaze known as the super-outburst in a repetitive process."
NASA further states that current theory does not explain why there is a long delay between each outburst.
NASA published the study in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.
NASA says that the retired Kepler telescope, which revolved around the sun to search for exoplanets, had captured the archival footage that made this discovery possible."
According to NASA's news release, the brown dwarf circles around the stellar vampire every 83 minutes at a distance of 400,000 km.
The white dwarf is about the size of the Earth, but its mass is equivalent to the Sun.
The little star's huge mass creates a powerful gravitational pull that sucks in matter from the brown dwarf which forms an accretion disk.
According to NASA, current theory speculates that when the accretion disk reaches a critical mass, its outer edge experiences gravitation resonance with the orbiting star.
The resonance heats up the accretion disk, raising the temperature from a normal high of 5,300 degrees Celcius to a peak of 11,700 degrees.
The study says that the enormous heat build up results in the blaze known as the super-outburst in a repetitive process."
NASA further states that current theory does not explain why there is a long delay between each outburst.