One of the strangest variable stars is worth watching this spring. Back in 2009, we alerted viewers to monitor the curious variable Epsilon Aurigae. Once every 27.06 years, this star dips nearly a magnitude in brightness down to about +3.8, markedly discernable to the naked eye. This drop lasts for over a year before Epsilon Aurigae returns to its former self. This spring should witness such an occurrence.
08.04.10-Epsilon Aurigae Update.
April 8, 2010 By Leave a Comment
We couldn’t resist shooting this one out there today, as it contains some fairly mind-blowing imagery. Late last year, we put a shout-out to observe the eclipsing binary star Epsilon Aurigae, a bright naked eye star that undergoes periodic diming once every 27 years. For over 190 years, this star has stubbornly not only refused to match stellar evolutionary models, but sometimes threatened to overthrow them, to boot. Now, scientists have solved the case of the disappearing star, and it’s a strange one, indeed. The variation in brightness appears to be the result of three factors; a bright type F supergiant, orbited by a hot type B star about 1,000 times dimmer shrouded in a massive dust disk. The entire system passes along our line of sight and obscures the host for an 18 month period. The grouping is about 2,000 light years distant. In fact, if Epsilon Aurigae were tipped away even 10 degrees more from our line of sight, we wouldn’t see anything unusual at all! This model of the systems’ total luminous output matches the observed brightness curve from the recent dimming. (see above) [Read more...]
AstroEvent of the Week: 27.04.09: Epsilon Aurigae.
April 28, 2009 By Leave a Comment
Epsilon Aurigae. (Credit: Stellarium).
The American Association of Variable Star Observers wants you to help gather data on a very enigmatic astronomical object; the variable star Epsilon Aurigae. This seemingly ordinary star varies in a very peculiar way. The primary is a type F0 super-giant star, and what is known is that every 27.06 years an unseen mass dims its light from its usual +3.0 magnitude to about +3.8 for about a year. [Read more...]
KIC Dreams: Thoughts on Tabby’s Star
Time to contemplate the cosmos…
All right. I know that, by now, much good ink (real and cyber) has been spilled over KIC 8462852. I also know that I’m probably not the very last science writer to turn our attention towards this strange star, drudged up in the Kepler Space Telescope data. And things have only gotten stranger, as search back through glass-plate archives has revealed that KIC 8462852 has gotten continuously fainter over the past century. [Read more...]