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Binary Star EF Eridanus Baffles Astronomers
baldinux writes "Reuters is reporting the finding of a new stellar object in the Eridanus constellation that may require the astronomical community to create a new category of stellar entities -- that is, dead ones. In the binary system, one of the stars 'gave too much' (Reuters) of its own resources to its partner white dwarf star, resulting in a breakdown of nuclear fusion, thus producing this 'dead' entity. Researchers at Gemini North (click here for images) and Keck II observatories at Mauna Kea, Hawaii, have been analyzing this unique system."
In human terms this is known as marriage.
They meet, they accrete, and then dance for years as they happily twirl about. But as time goes by her ass grows more massive as she sucks out his soul and he becomes a shadow of his former self.
So I propose the name: Succubus and the Bitter Old Man.
__ Someday, but not this morning, I'll finally learn to use the preview button.
Though it may have lost its hydrogen and helium burning capeability I would hypothesise that the thing is now an L or T dwarf that is to say it might be Duterium or Lithium burning, or its spectral profile might be very dusty or contain methane. In otherwords we might have just seen an L or T dwarf being made but I highly doubt this is a new class of star.
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Could the dwarf star absorb enough mass that fusion could start again? That would be awesome!
This is what novae are (not supernovae, which are different). When a white dwarf star accretes matter, it builds up on its outer shell. Since the white dwarf is incredibly dense, its gravity is incredibly strong, so the layer of matter (hydrogen) is incredibly hot. Eventually the density of hydrogen grows enough that fusion can occur again, and it does - and the star burns off (very quickly - ~few days) what took it several years to build up.
This causes a white dwarf to go from barely visible to extremely bright. In the night sky, it looks like a new star comes out of nowhere, then disappears - hence the word "nova", meaning 'new'.