Enlarge / A rendering of the star V Hydrae, or V Hya for brief. In its loss of life throes, the star emitted a sequence of increasing rings that scientists calculated are being fashioned each few hundred years, per UCLA astronomer Mark Morris. (credit score: ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO)/S. Dagnello (NRAO/AUI/NSF))
Astronomers have caught a crimson big star going by way of its remaining loss of life throes in unprecedented element, revealing an uncommon characteristic. The star, referred to as V Hydrae (or V Hya for brief), ejected six distinct rings of fabric, in accordance with a preprint accepted for publication within the Astrophysical Journal. The particular mechanism of those mysterious “smoke rings” fashioned shouldn’t be but understood. Nonetheless, the remark might probably shake up present fashions for this explicit late stage of stellar evolution and shed additional gentle on the destiny of our personal Solar.
“V Hydrae has been caught within the strategy of shedding its environment—in the end most of its mass—which is one thing that the majority late-stage crimson giants do,” mentioned co-author Mark Morris, an astronomer at UCLA. Nonetheless, “That is the primary and solely time {that a} sequence of increasing rings has been seen round a star that’s in its loss of life throes—a sequence of increasing ‘smoke rings’ that we now have calculated are being blown each few hundred years.”
Crimson giants are one of many remaining phases of stellar evolution. As soon as a star’s core stops changing hydrogen into helium by way of nuclear fusion, gravity begins to compress the star, elevating its inner temperature. This course of ignites a shell of hydrogen burning round an inert core. Ultimately, the compression and heating within the core trigger the star to develop considerably, reaching diameters between 62 million and 620 million miles (100 million to 1 billion kilometers). The floor temperatures are comparatively cool by stellar requirements: a mere 4,000 to five,800 levels F (2,200 to three,200 levels C). So these stars tackle an orange-red look, therefore the crimson big moniker.
Learn 9 remaining paragraphs | Feedback
