Latest news with #binarystar
The Independent
02-07-2025
- Science
- The Independent
Citizen astronomers see moment star explodes by playing ‘spot the difference'
Citizen scientists have spotted the moment a binary star system exploded after playing 'spot the difference' with images from two telescopes on opposite sides of the planet. The volunteers had joined the Kilonova Seekers project to identify cosmic explosions of neutron stars and black holes colliding in distant galaxies. They managed to identify a cataclysmic variable star, named GOTO0650, which had undergone 'extreme brightening' compared to an image taken just two days before. The results have been published in a paper in the scientific journal Astronomy and Astrophysics. A cataclysmic variable star is a binary star system made up of a white dwarf primary and a secondary star which are so close to each other that the gravity of the white dwarf distorts the second one. For the Kilonova Seekers project, members of the public are asked to compare data from two gravitational-wave optical transient observer (GOTO) telescopes – one in La Palma in the Canary Islands and the other at Australia's Siding Spring Observatory. More than 3,500 people take part in the project from countries around the world. Professor Laura Nuttall, from the University of Portsmouth, said: 'I'm really proud of everything Kilonova Seekers is achieving. 'We're engaging with people in just about every time zone, and thanks to their enthusiasm for the project, they are making discoveries and contributing to furthering our understanding of astrophysics.' Dr Lisa Kelsey, from the University of Cambridge, said: 'Citizen science is a powerful way to make novel serendipitous discoveries in vast datasets that would normally need to be analysed in depth by scientists. 'With over 2.8 million classifications so far, the discovery of GOTO0650 is really the pinnacle of two years of consistent hard work from our volunteers. 'Without the Kilonova Seekers volunteers flagging this object, rapid follow-up would not have been possible, and this object may have been missed entirely.' Co-lead of Kilonova Seekers, Dr Tom Killestein, at the University of Warwick, said: 'Kilonova Seekers is a unique opportunity for members of the public to take part in true real-time astrophysics. 'Remarkably, public volunteers identified this star as an object of interest within three and a half hours of the image being taken by the GOTO telescopes – this discovery could have been missed among many other objects without their efforts.' Volunteer Cledison Marcos da Silva said: 'This discovery was very important to me, as I was going through a serious health problem and the citizen science we do at Kilonova Seekers was distracting me from my situation. 'I never imagined that we would discover such a bright transient, so it was a huge surprise, and we were very happy when we found out. 'This discovery shows the importance of citizen science, both scientifically and personally. Even from your bed, or on the street with your cell phone, there is the possibility of making a very important discovery.' Another participant Mayahuel Torres-Guerrero said: 'It was very exciting when GOTO0650 produced an echo outburst on Christmas Day and New Year's Day. It was a great journey for someone who has studied social sciences like me.'
The Guardian
30-06-2025
- Science
- The Guardian
Starwatch: Spica greets the passing moon
This week, the bright star Spica greets the passing moon. The chart shows the view looking south-west from London at 22.15 BST on 3 July 2025. At 8.3 days old, and with 60% of its visible surface illuminated, the moon will be just past its first quarter (half moon) phase and into its waxing gibbous phase, on the way to becoming full next week. Spica is the brightest star in the constellation Virgo, the maiden. It is the 15th brightest star in the night sky and lies about 250 light-years away from Earth. Although it appears as a single object to even our most advanced telescopes, detailed analysis reveals that Spica is in fact a binary star. It is composed of two giant stars, separated by about 18m km, that orbit each other once every four days. One of these component stars has a diameter just under eight times the size of the sun's diameter and the other is four times the diameter. Together they give out more than 12,000 times the light from our sun. From the southern hemisphere, the conjunction will appear to be higher in the sky, and therefore a little easier to see.
Yahoo
23-05-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Scientists find rare double-star system where one star orbited inside the other
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. Astronomers may have discovered a rare type of binary star system, where one star used to orbit inside its partner. In the new study, astronomers investigated a pulsar known as PSR J1928+1815 located about 455 light-years from Earth. A pulsar is a kind of neutron star, a corpse of a large star that perished in a catastrophic explosion known as a supernova. The gravitational pull of the star's remains would have been strong enough to crush together protons and electrons to form neutrons, meaning a neutron star is mostly made of neutrons. That makes it very (very) dense. Pulsars are spinning neutron stars that emit twin beams of radio waves from their magnetic poles. These beams appear to pulse because astronomers see them only when a pulsar pole is pointed at Earth. The researchers estimate this particular pulsar was born from a hot blue star more than eight times the sun's mass. Using the Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical radio Telescope (FAST) in China, the world's largest single-dish telescope, the astronomers discovered PSR J1928+1815 had a companion, a helium star with about 1 to 1.6 times the sun's mass. This star has lost most — or all — of its outer layers of hydrogen, leaving behind a core made up mostly of helium. These stars in this pair are currently only about 700,000 miles (1.12 million kilometers) apart, or about 50 times closer than Mercury is to the sun, study co-author Jin-Lan Han, chair of the radio astronomy division of the National Astronomical Observatories of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing, told They complete an orbit around each other in just 3.6 hours. PSR J1928+1815 is a millisecond pulsar, which means it whirls extraordinarily rapidly, spinning nearly 100 times a second. Millisecond pulsars typically reach these dizzying speeds as they cannibalize nearby companions — the inrushing material makes them gyrate faster and faster. Previous research suggested that, as millisecond pulsars feed on their partners, these binary systems may experience a "common envelope" phase, in which the pulsar orbits within the outer layers of its companion. However, scientists have never detected such exotic binaries — perhaps until now. Related Stories: — This astronomer found a sneaky extra star in James Webb Space Telescope data — Hubble Telescope sees wandering black hole slurping up stellar spaghetti — Giant young star is growing by 2 Jupiter masses every year, new study shows Using computer models, the researchers suggest the members of this newfound binary started at a distance from each other about twice that between Earth and the sun (185 million miles, or 299 million km), Han said. The pulsar would have then started siphoning off its companion's outer layers, forming a common envelope around them both. After roughly 1,000 years, the pulsar would have spiraled close to its partner's core, which likely flung away the last of this envelope, leaving behind a tightly bound binary system. Based on the estimated number of binary stars in the Milky Way that roughly match this newfound system, the researchers suggest only 16 to 84 counterparts of PSR J1928+1815 and its companion may exist in our galaxy. (For context, the Milky Way hosts about 100 billion to 400 billion stars.) The scientists detailed their findings online May 22 in the journal Science.
