The dramatic
end of a binary star can be a stunning but a violent thing. A binary system
called ‘R Aquarii’. A red giant releasing its outer layer in space and it is
being avariciously cannibalised by its fellow star, a much smaller, denser
white dwarf. This is happening just 650 light-years from Earth – practically
out neighbourhood in astronomical terms, which is why astronomers have a keen
interest in the event.
Artist's
illustration of a closer view
But this new
view(below) of the interaction – captured in near-infrared by the SPHERE
planet-hunting tool on the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope
– provides an unbelievably detailed new glance of the action. What's happening
in the image is very violent. The red giant is what is called as a Mira
variable star, a star at the very end of its life. These type of stars have
already blown off at least half their material out in the space, and as they
pulse, they extent to a brightness 1,000 times that of the Sun.
You can
download full-size and wallpaper-size versions of the photo here, and read the
paper on it in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics.
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