An international group of astronomers using NASA’s Hubble and Spitzer Space Telescopes has discovered a mysterious protostar that behaves like a flashing light.
This infrared image shows the protostellar object LRLL 54361 (NASA / ESA / J. Muzerolle / STScI)
The object, labeled LRLL 54361, unleashes a burst of light every 25.34 days. The heart of the fireworks is hidden behind a dense disk and envelope of dust. Astronomers propose that the light flashes are due to material suddenly being dumped onto the growing stars, known as protostars, unleashing a blast of radiation each time the stars get close to each other in their orbit. This is the so-called pulsed-accretion model. The phenomenon has been seen in later stages of star birth but never in such a young system, nor with such intensity and regularity.
“This protostar has large brightness variations with a precise period that is very difficult to explain,” said Dr James Muzerolle of the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, lead author of a paper reporting the discovery in the journal Nature.
LRLL 54361 was discovered by the Spitzer Space Telescope as a variable object inside the star-forming region IC 348, located 950 light-years away. Its infrared spectrum has the typical signature of a protostar. These stars are estimated to be no more than a few hundred thousand years old, based on statistical analysis.
The Hubble was used to confirm the Spitzer observations and revealed the detailed structure around the protostar. Hubble resolved two cavities that are traced by light scattered off their edges above and below a dusty disk. The cavities were likely blown out of the surrounding natal envelope of dust and gas by an outflow launched near the central stars.
By capturing multiple images over the course of one pulse event, the Hubble observations uncovered a spectacular movement of light away from the center of the system, an optical illusion known as a light echo.
The astronomers hypothesized that a pair of stars lie in the center of the dust cloud, moving about each other in a very eccentric orbit. As the stars approach each other, dust and gas are dragged from the inner edge of a surrounding disk. The material ultimately crashes onto one or both stars, which triggers a flash of light that then illuminates the circumstellar dust. The system is rare because close binaries account for only a few percent of our galaxy’s stellar population.
The team plans to continue monitoring LRLL 54361 using other facilities including the Herschel Space Telescope, and hopes to eventually obtain more direct measurements of the binary star and its orbit.
“This system continues to surprise us, and we can’t wait to see what happens next!” Dr Muzerolle concluded.
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Bibliographic information: James Muzerolle et al. 2013. Pulsed accretion in a variable protostar. Nature 493, 378–380; doi: 10.1038/nature11746
A NEW QUATUM MECHANICAL MASSFLOW DYNAMICAL SYSTEM FORMING AN ATTRACTIVE FORCE CONFIRMING EINSTEIN,S RELATIVITY THEORY
Opposing Bessel lasing between circular and linear
polarisation forming a new quantum mechanical invention -reg
Sankaravelayudhan Nandakumar Nandakumar
9:09 AM (0 minutes ago)
to wphillips, cornell, Outreach, news, info
A new Bessel lasing of opposing
circular and linear interactive
optical switch may be generated to isolate mass flow in condenser
mater physics nas been suggested by Sankaravelyudhan Nandakumar of
Hubble space science reserach committee as a part of his Chameleon
Pulsar investigation in formulating new quantum mechanical theory of
revolution.
ref:
Split personality tarnishes pulsars’ rep dual characteristics based
on pole reversal and squeezing to deal with different frequencies
emissions at opposing and attractive magnetic-fields initiating some
Bessel beam of erratic type forming Synchronous X-ray and Radio Mode
Switches
This pulsar orbits another neutron star with an orbital period of just
eight hours. Einstein’s theory of general relativity predicts that
this system should emit strong gravitational radiation, causing the
orbit to continually contract as it loses orbital energy. Observations
of the pulsar soon confirmed this prediction, providing the first ever
evidence of the existence of gravitational waves. As of 2010,
observations of this pulsar continue to agree with general
relativity.[10] In 1993, the Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded to
Taylor and Hulse for the discovery of this pulsar.[11]Dualistic
character of heart like expanding and contracting pulsar forming poles
out of neutrality towards poles that can depict Einstein’s energy
change in between spiral and linear quasi-nature light rays forming
mass and mass change over as x ray energies is possible correctly
proving Einstein’s mass energy equations as x -ray laser pulsars that
pushes the pole from neutrality to positive and negative cores from
neutrality to ejection of xrays sometimes and radio waves thereby
an
Einstein energy equation is fulfilled under the variable magnetic
field deflections radially and axially forming a new type of
inductive capacitive phase shifting switching contributing power
synchro switch and a possible reversal of linear to circular
polarisation with a variable Bessel beam acceleration and
deceleration this strongly suggests that a temporary ”hotspot” close
to the pulsar’s magnetic pole switches on and off.
Dual split type pulsar.doc