New Star in the Neighborhood

tachyonflow writes "Well, it's probably been around for a while, but it's new to us. The Sydney Morning Herald is reporting that astronomers have discovered a new star only 7.8 light-years from our sun. It's a red dwarf that's not visible to the naked eye from earth. I guess it's time to update those Celestia databases..."

Comments

Why it's dim...

[wowbagger]

It's dimmer than they expect because Lister has not yet finished repainting it yet.

It's not a "new star"

[Mensa Babe]

Well, it's not exactly a new star, in a sense that it was formed recently. It is just a recently discoverd, but a very old star. The Slashdot summary is somewhat misleading, but the article is very interesting, I highly recommend reading it. Not that I posted this story two hours before, only to have it rejected... *sigh*

Re:It's not a "new star"

[httptech]

Not that I posted this story two hours before, only to have it rejected... *sigh*

There's often a delay of a few hours between a submission's approval and its posting, so you probably were just not the first submission. I posted a story and had it almost immediately rejected, then saw the same story posted the next day. Turns out the submitter had sent it in an hour and a half ahead of me, but it wasn't posted for 18 hours. So don't be too bummed out about it.

Better Info

[kalidasa]

ApJ Letters Submission on arxiv

a new star?

[bobba22]

A new star that *Pop Idol* failed to discover?? It can't be true..

Re:worth a closer look

[PeterClark]

Excellent. Finding one of these is worth zillions of galaxies, quasars, and the like.

Even if it doesn't have liquid water, gasious oxygen, or solid land, then it can still focus as the fulcrum of our local jump point.

Surely you jest. Local? Pray tell, how is 7.8 lightyears local? Well, on a galactic scale, it may be local, but from the viewpoint of space travel, it's probably further than we'll ever get, at least for another couple generations, and that's assuming we get lucky. Alpha Centauri is roughly a little more than half that distance. The article includes a rather nice little diagram illustrating the three nearest stars (although it's rather misleading to make Sol so large, but hey, what can you do?) So for a gravity-assisted swing-by, this is definitely out of the question for a good long time.

Dyson sphere?

[Alan Shield]

However, there is a small chance this figure could be revised, he said, since the star appears to be too faint for this distance. Either it is actually further away, he said, or it has unusual properties that make it shine less brightly than other red dwarfs.

Anyone have the numbers on how dim a dyson sphere around a Sol-like star would be?

Nemesis anyone?

[RalphBNumbers]

I just started reading Nemesis by Isaac Asimov last night.

The book starts with the discovery of a neighbor star, later named Nemesis. It is a Red Dwarf, and closer to Earth than Alpha Centuari. It is also dimmer than one would expect because of a dust cloud between it and the solar system.

Now how's that for coincidence?

Re:Nemesis anyone?

[mikedaisey]

Well, this isn't closer than Alpha Centauri, and it doesn't have a dust cloud. Otherwise there's a lot of coincidence. ;)

Re:Red, or brown?

[JetJaguar]

Well, it is very near the low mass cut-off. The minimum mass required to fuse helium is right around 0.07. So yeah, it's possible for it to be a main sequence star, barely.

Re:http://www.reddwarf.com/

[scovetta]

The star has it's own website?!!

Re:worth a closer look

[js7a]

how is 7.8 lightyears local?

It's local if you're headed in that direction. Alpha Centari, Barnard's, and Wolf 359 are all on the same side.

Also, for gravity assist, it's not the size of the mass that matters so much as its relative motion.

it's rather misleading to make Sol so large, but hey, what can you do?

Solstation has a nice 3-D star map Java applet.