Slashdot Mirror
Star Within a Star: Thorne-Zytkow Object Discovered
astroengine writes: "A weird type of 'hybrid' star has been discovered nearly 40 years since it was first theorized — but until now has been curiously difficult to find. In 1975, renowned astrophysicists Kip Thorne, of the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) in Pasadena, Calif., and Anna Zytkow, of the University of Cambridge, UK, assembled a theory on how a large dying star could swallow its neutron star binary partner, thus becoming a very rare type of stellar hybrid, nicknamed a Thorne-Zytkow object (or TZO). The neutron star — a dense husk of degenerate matter that was once a massive star long since gone supernova — would spiral into the red supergiant's core, interrupting normal fusion processes. According to the Thorne-Zytkow theory, after the two objects have merged, an excess of the elements rubidium, lithium and molybdenum will be generated by the hybrid. So astronomers have been on the lookout for stars in our galaxy, which is thought to contain only a few dozen of these objects at any one time, with this specific chemical signature in their atmospheres. Now, according to Emily Levesque of the University of Colorado Boulder and her team, a bona fide TZO has been discovered and their findings have been accepted for publication in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society Letters."
Can't read anything because can't turn off ads anymore.
Don't complain about syntax, grammar, or spelling. There is no.hell like input on android.
Nuff' said.
Looks like these will be well lubricated and happy about it.
Star Within a Star
How is "within" defined actually?
Physically, a star, like anything else, is a big swarm of atoms. So how do you define "inside", and what is the significance?
"a dense husk of degenerate matter"
Sounds like the average slashdotter. *rimshot*
Mkay, where is the checklist of theorized star types yet to be discovered?
I heard you like stars, so we put a star inside a star.
" an excess of the elements rubidium, lithium and molybdenum will be generated by the hybrid."
Just what we need, a hybrid that makes Lithium
I'm eagerly awaiting the day when all communication on the internet can be done either via cat pictures or quoting memes
we're getting closer and closer.
You're welcome.
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DRM is like antifreeze, to the MPAA/RIAA it's sweet, to the consumers it's poison.
This "Star within a star" thing has been a phenomenon commonly known in Hollywood since the days Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks.
A place so big and fantastic where anything that is theoretically possible has probably happened hundreds or thousands, if not millions, of times.
So much mineral wealth! Now that we have a private space industry, we can mine the star for its vast mineral wealth!
Mine it for batteries!
It's not a good idea to use words one doesn't understand just because they might sound cool. A husk is a left over outer shell or covering. A neutron star derives from the inner layers and core of the original star--the summary writers could hardly have chosen a more ill-fitting word. That the degenerate matter in a neutron star is a superfluid, juxtaposed with the more specific meaning of husk as the _dried_ outer portion of a fruit or nut, takes this misuse of the word into the realm of the ludicrous.
"Politicians and diapers must be changed often, and for the same reason."
It's important to keep in mind that this is the identification of a Thorne-Zytkow *candidate*. Further study will be needed to confirm whether this is a genuine T-Z object or not - as it is actually quite difficult to tell. In terms of luminosity and temperature, such an object would appear quite similar to a normal red supergiant. The key observational clue is a peculiar abundance of Li, along with some other elements such as Rb. The authors see some of these elements in spectra they have taken, but others do not seem to match the predictions of the T-Z model. However, it is hard to measure abundances with very high precison - both in terms of the observational data required, and the theoretical models which are needed to infer an abundance from an observed spectrum. Furthermore, there are some other features they observe, such as strong narrow emission lines from hydrogen which were not previously expected for a T-Z object.
It's a very intersting paper, and a tantalising result, but it's still early days...
Careful posting that word in caps, you may attract the attention of /. fruitcake and malware author APK.
SAF predicts a Linguistic Collapse Event (LCE). SAFLCE will merge all communication into a lone acronym. Fear.
I herd you like stars, so I put a star in your star so you can fusion while you fusion.
Koans and fables for the software engineer
rubidium, lithium and molybdenum
And strontium and silicon and silver and samarium and bismuth, bromine, helium, beryllium and barium. These are the only ones of which the news has come to Harvard--there may be many many but they haven't been discovered.
Um.. I thought a neutron star was mainly neutronium, with a layer of degenerate matter on top of that, and maybe a layer of normal matter on top of that?
Are YOU using the TOOL, or is the TOOL using YOU? Think about it!
Happens to be outside our galaxy.
Just saying.
So how do we mine TZO crystals out of this TZO?
"a dense husk of degenerate matter that was once a massive star long" - Lindsey Lohan?
During sex, Brad Pitt is inside Angelina Jolie!
I am glad you converted that to metric because obviously a teaspoon can't hold any visible amount of neutronium, its not strong enough.