If you think winter nights are long, think again.
You could be living in a world where, once every 69 years, the sun almost totally disappears for three and a half years.
Researchers
have discovered a binary star system, two stars orbiting each other,
that boasts a new record for the longest known stellar eclipse and the
longest time between eclipses.
It
smashes the record held by the previous system, Epsilon Aurigae - a
giant star that is eclipsed by its companion star every 27 years, for
periods ranging from 640 to 730 days.
+3
Researchers have discovered a binary
star system, two stars orbiting each other, that boasts a new record for
the longest known stellar eclipse and the longest time between
eclipses. It is 10,000 light years from Earth and is referred to by its
catalogue number TYC 2505-672-1. Illustration of the system is shown
The
new system is 10,000 light years from earth and while it doesn't yet
have name, it is referred to by its catalogue number TYC 2505-672-1.
The
discovery was made from photographic plates taken by Harvard in the
1980s as part of the Digital Access to a Sky Century at Harvard (DASCH)
program, by a team of astronomers from Vanderbilt and Harvard
Universities.
‘It’s
the longest duration stellar eclipse and the longest orbit for an
eclipsing binary ever found by far,’ said Joey Rodriguez, a doctoral
student and the lead author of the paper.
The
university had recently started to put the plates, from between 1980
and 1989, into a digital form when the binary system caught the
attention of Sumin Tang, a postdoc student.
Tang presented her own results on the system at a conference, which led to Rodriguez and Tang collaborating.
+3
The eclipse smashes the record held by
the previous system, Epsilon Aurigae - a giant star that is eclipsed by
its companion star every 27 years, for periods ranging from 640 to 730
days. The light curves from Epsilon Aurigae are pictured top, while the
light curves for the new binary system are shown bottom
+3
The research team found 9,000 pictures
of the binary star system taken by the Kilodegree Extremely Little
Telescope (Kelt), shown. They used the pictures to discover that the
system is made of a pair of red giant stars
They found 9,000 pictures of the system taken by the Kilodegree Extremely Little Telescope (Kelt).
They discovered that the system is made of a pair of red giant stars.
One
of the stars had been stripped down to a relatively small core and
surrounded by an extremely large disk of material that produces the
extended eclipse.
The
system is so far away that they could only extract a limited amount of
data, but could estimate the surface of the companion star is about
2,000 times hotter than the surface of the sun.
The distance between the two is about as far as our sun to Uranus.
RECORD HOLDING ECLIPSES
OLD RECORD HOLDER: EPSILON AURIGAE
Eclipsed every 27 years
Eclipses lasting from 640 to 730 days
2,000 light years from Earth
NEW RECORD HOLDER: TYC 2505-672-1
Eclipsed every 69 years
Eclipses lasting 1277 days
10,000 light years from Earth
‘Right now even our most powerful telescopes can’t independently resolve the two objects’ said Rodriguez.
‘Hopefully, technological advances will make that possible by 2080 when the next eclipse occurs.’
‘One
of the great challenges in astronomy is that some of the most important
phenomena occur on astronomical timescales, yet astronomers are
generally limited to much shorter human timescales,# said co-author
Keivan Stassun, professor of physics and astronomy at Vanderbilt.
‘Here
we have a rare opportunity to study a phenomenon that plays out over
many decades and provides a window into the types of environments around
stars that could represent planetary building blocks at the very end of
a star system’s life.’
This system will allow researchers to carefully study the eclipse in 2080 when the next one is predicted.
If you think winter nights are long, think again.
You could be living in a world where, once every 69 years, the sun almost totally disappears for three and a half years.
Researchers
have discovered a binary star system, two stars orbiting each other,
that boasts a new record for the longest known stellar eclipse and the
longest time between eclipses.
It
smashes the record held by the previous system, Epsilon Aurigae - a
giant star that is eclipsed by its companion star every 27 years, for
periods ranging from 640 to 730 days.
+3
Researchers have discovered a binary
star system, two stars orbiting each other, that boasts a new record for
the longest known stellar eclipse and the longest time between
eclipses. It is 10,000 light years from Earth and is referred to by its
catalogue number TYC 2505-672-1. Illustration of the system is shown
The
new system is 10,000 light years from earth and while it doesn't yet
have name, it is referred to by its catalogue number TYC 2505-672-1.
The
discovery was made from photographic plates taken by Harvard in the
1980s as part of the Digital Access to a Sky Century at Harvard (DASCH)
program, by a team of astronomers from Vanderbilt and Harvard
Universities.
‘It’s
the longest duration stellar eclipse and the longest orbit for an
eclipsing binary ever found by far,’ said Joey Rodriguez, a doctoral
student and the lead author of the paper.
The
university had recently started to put the plates, from between 1980
and 1989, into a digital form when the binary system caught the
attention of Sumin Tang, a postdoc student.
Tang presented her own results on the system at a conference, which led to Rodriguez and Tang collaborating.
+3
The eclipse smashes the record held by
the previous system, Epsilon Aurigae - a giant star that is eclipsed by
its companion star every 27 years, for periods ranging from 640 to 730
days. The light curves from Epsilon Aurigae are pictured top, while the
light curves for the new binary system are shown bottom
+3
The research team found 9,000 pictures
of the binary star system taken by the Kilodegree Extremely Little
Telescope (Kelt), shown. They used the pictures to discover that the
system is made of a pair of red giant stars
They found 9,000 pictures of the system taken by the Kilodegree Extremely Little Telescope (Kelt).
They discovered that the system is made of a pair of red giant stars.
One
of the stars had been stripped down to a relatively small core and
surrounded by an extremely large disk of material that produces the
extended eclipse.
The
system is so far away that they could only extract a limited amount of
data, but could estimate the surface of the companion star is about
2,000 times hotter than the surface of the sun.
The distance between the two is about as far as our sun to Uranus.
RECORD HOLDING ECLIPSES
OLD RECORD HOLDER: EPSILON AURIGAE
Eclipsed every 27 years
Eclipses lasting from 640 to 730 days
2,000 light years from Earth
NEW RECORD HOLDER: TYC 2505-672-1
Eclipsed every 69 years
Eclipses lasting 1277 days
10,000 light years from Earth
‘Right now even our most powerful telescopes can’t independently resolve the two objects’ said Rodriguez.
‘Hopefully, technological advances will make that possible by 2080 when the next eclipse occurs.’
‘One
of the great challenges in astronomy is that some of the most important
phenomena occur on astronomical timescales, yet astronomers are
generally limited to much shorter human timescales,# said co-author
Keivan Stassun, professor of physics and astronomy at Vanderbilt.
‘Here
we have a rare opportunity to study a phenomenon that plays out over
many decades and provides a window into the types of environments around
stars that could represent planetary building blocks at the very end of
a star system’s life.’
This system will allow researchers to carefully study the eclipse in 2080 when the next one is predicted.
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