Jan. 24, 2013 — A University of Alberta professor has revealed the workings of a celestial event involving binary stars that results in an explosion so powerful it ranks close to Supernovae in luminosity.
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Astrophysicists have long debated about what happens when binary stars, two stars that orbit one another, come together in a common envelope. When this dramatic cannibalizing event ends there are two possible outcomes; the two stars merge into a single star or an initial binary transforms in an exotic short-period one.
The event is believed to take anywhere from a dozen days to a few hundred years to complete. Either length is considered to be extremely fast in terms of celestial events. More than a half of all stars in the universe are binary stars. Up until now, researchers had no idea what a common envelope event would look like.
U of A theoretical astrophysicist Natalia Ivanova analyzed the physics of what happens in the outer layers of a common envelope. She found that hot and ionized material in the common envelope cools and expands and then releases energy in the form of a bright red outburst of light.
Ivanova linked these theoretically anticipated common envelope outbursts with recently discovered Luminous Red Novae, mysterious transients that are brighter than Novae and just a bit less luminous than Supernovae.
Her research provided both a way to identify common envelope events and explained the luminosity generated during the common envelope event.
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Astrophysicists have long debated about what happens when binary stars, two stars that orbit one another, come together in a common envelope. When this dramatic cannibalizing event ends there are two possible outcomes; the two stars merge into a single star or an initial binary transforms in an exotic short-period one.
The event is believed to take anywhere from a dozen days to a few hundred years to complete. Either length is considered to be extremely fast in terms of celestial events. More than a half of all stars in the universe are binary stars. Up until now, researchers had no idea what a common envelope event would look like.
U of A theoretical astrophysicist Natalia Ivanova analyzed the physics of what happens in the outer layers of a common envelope. She found that hot and ionized material in the common envelope cools and expands and then releases energy in the form of a bright red outburst of light.
Ivanova linked these theoretically anticipated common envelope outbursts with recently discovered Luminous Red Novae, mysterious transients that are brighter than Novae and just a bit less luminous than Supernovae.
Her research provided both a way to identify common envelope events and explained the luminosity generated during the common envelope event.
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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of Alberta, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS.
Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.
Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.
Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.
Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.