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Hubble Discovers a Fast-Aging Star Nicknamed "Nasty 1"

An anonymous reader writes: Using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, Astronomers have uncovered surprising new clues about a large, rapidly aging star whose behavior has never been seen before. The star is so strange in fact that astronomers have nicknamed it "Nasty 1," a play on its catalog name of NaSt1. Wolf-Rayet stars like NaSt1 are typically large, rapidly evolving stellar bodies that form by shedding their hydrogen-filled outer layers quickly, exposing a bright hot, helium-burning core. Nasty 1 is unique because it contains a disk like structure. "We were excited to see this disk-like structure because it may be evidence for a Wolf-Rayet star forming from a binary interaction," said Jon Mauerhan of UC Berkeley, lead author on the new Nasty 1 paper. "There are very few examples in the galaxy of this process in action because this phase is short-lived, perhaps lasting only a hundred thousand years, while the timescale over which a resulting disk is visible could be only ten thousand years or less."

3 of 29 comments (clear)

  1. With Names Like This... by sanman2 · · Score: 4, Funny

    It's naming mishaps like this which lead to interstellar wars

  2. rapidly aging star whose behavior.... by turkeydance · · Score: 4, Funny

    Woody Allen would be appropriate.

  3. Re:Hubble Discovers?! Oh Really? by Tanktalus · · Score: 3, Funny

    So you're saying this is old news?

    Really, isn't that all slashdot is about now?

    Admittedly, 50 years behind is a bit long, even by slashdot standards...