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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."
Nuff' said.
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Did they try putting an ad within an ad on this article about a star within a star?
(T>t && O(n)--) == sqrt(666)
"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?
" 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 used to think adblock was unnecessary back when google was doing the whole "unobtrusive text ad" thing, and I saw a future with hope for ads being reasonable things. But it's been years since that was worth worrying about.
Marketers haven't learned that their obnoxiousness is a tragedy of the commons thing, and upping that factor to compete just quietly hurts the marketplace as a whole.
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.
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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.
The star in question is a ball gravitationally bound of gas that has a reasonably well defined perimeter, with a neutron star (a ball of also gravitationally bound degenerate matter) orbiting it at some distance.
The neutron star which was orbiting the other star, is now (due to the first star expanding as it transitions to the red giant stage) within the perimeter of the first star.
So in other words: the same damn definition of "inside" you use for things in every day life, what's to not understand?
Mine it for batteries!
My body is a big swarm of atoms but somehow I'm able to tell when a piece of food is within my mouth. Go figure.
Does this work? I haven't bothered with AdBlock before, but this Slashdot site is getting pretty unreadable. There's the click close at the bottom of every screen to prevent the ad from covering 2/3 of the screen. The auto-play video that ties up limited bandwidth and prevents screen-scrolling. Now this shunt to ad-video page and wait for Slashdot to load bullshit. I was thinking of quitting... I've read Slashdot for a long time, but this is getting unusable.
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...
Don't worry, you'll be able to understand simple concepts again when the LSD wears off. Until then there must be more interesting things than posting on slashdot for you to do!
Spoken like someone who has never taken LSD.
Be seeing you...
Damn, now we have a turducken star. Why are they calling it some stupid name when it is clearly the turducken?
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
Imagine you are just standing there and then WHAM! a very large soap bubble slams in to you and all of a sudden you are inside the bubble and the bubble happened to close in around you without popping. You are now inside the bubble and you are still a distinguishable unit of matter detectable from the bubble you're now inside.
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.
I'll answer you without sarcasm.
Stars have pretty well defined life cycles. They go from A to B to C etc.
Their life cycle is determined by how heavy they are (among a few other facts).
This star within a star, is a star with a core that has a composition that doesn't exist, unless you grab one star; and put it into another.
In other words; if the other star didn't fall into and get fully absorbed by the larger star; it would never exist. Therefore, it is a Star in a Star.
But; you knew that already and were just being a fucking pedant.
I use ABP regularly - I didn't even realise that ads were used on slashdot
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!
...yo dawg, I heard you like ads...
Happens to be outside our galaxy.
Just saying.
"a dense husk of degenerate matter that was once a massive star long" - Lindsey Lohan?
I think they're experimenting with adblock countermeasures.
I mean, the other day for one story I got bullshit ads. this is despite me using the "classic" mode(that goes to a different page for making a reply etc) - and despite using abp - and despite having "ads disabled" checkbox checked.
world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
Rob malda would be spinning in his grave but the existence of beta and the new slashdot would never afford him the posibility of resting in peace.
I stuck around after most of the intelligent people left, I even stuck around after the stories dropped about 30-40 iq points to understand, but ffs showing me ads all over the place at the same time as prominently/displaying an ads disabled-for-contributions... well, fuck it.
Don't complain about syntax, grammar, or spelling. There is no.hell like input on android.
I am glad you converted that to metric because obviously a teaspoon can't hold any visible amount of neutronium, its not strong enough.
Did they try putting an ad within an ad on this article about a star within a star?
If they did, they would earn an exception filter in AdBlock from me.
..or the other way 'round if she uses a strap on.
Look back up at my post, now look back down, you're on the Internet. Now look back up. I'm a signature.
No, the ads aren't off topic if you have the ad box checked and suddenly an ad is above it.