Epsilon Aurigae dims every 27 years. It’s still a bit of a mystery why.
When Two Become One
New observations support the idea that some supernovae are caused by the collision of white dwarf stars.
Contact Binary
A contact binary star occurs when two stars are close enough that their outer layers are in contact with each other.
Total Eclipse of the Heart
In August of last year a star briefly brightened by a factor of 5 in a single day.
Run Silent, Run Deep
The pulsar J1906+0746 has gone silent, and that’s good news for general relativity.
Kissing Cousins
In the constellation of Camelopardalis (also known as the Giraffe) is a faint star known as MY Cam. It appears faint because it is about 13,000 light years away, but its spectrum showed that it was actually a blue supergiant. Then recently, detailed measurements indicated that it was a spectroscopic binary consisting of two blue supergiants. Now a new paper in Astronomy & Astrophysics has revealed that the two stars orbit very, very closely.
Diversity of Worlds
Although we’ve found planets in binary star systems, it isn’t clear how they could have formed. But new observations of a binary system provides a clue.
The Reveal
An occultation is where one object passes in front of another from your vantage point. It is similar to an eclipse or transit, but in this case the occulting object completely blocks the more distant object. Typically occultations occur when the moon occults planets, or when solar system objects occult stars.
Hidden Variables
In the constellation of Ursa Major (of which the Big Dipper is a part), in the crook of the tail (or bend in the handle) is a double star known as Mizar and Alcor, seen above. These stars are visually separated just enough to be distinguishable to the naked eye. Distinguishing them requires good vision, and they were sometimes used as a test of visual acuity.
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