Posted on 08/06/2007 7:12:22 AM PDT by SunkenCiv
Using ESO's Very Large Telescope Interferometer, astronomers from France and Brazil have detected a huge cloud of dust around a star. This observation is further evidence for the theory that such stellar puffs are the cause of the repeated extreme dimming of the star... R Coronae Borealis stars are supergiants exhibiting erratic variability... R Coronae Borealis stars can see their apparent brightness unpredictably decline to a thousandth of their nominal value within a few weeks, with the return to normal light levels being much slower. It has been accepted for decades that such fading could be due to obscuration of the stellar surface by newly formed dusty clouds. This 'Dust Puff Theory' suggests that mass is lost from the R Coronae Borealis (or R CrB for short) star and then moves away until the temperature is low enough for carbon dust to form. If the newly formed dust cloud is located along our line-of-sight, it eclipses the star. As the dust is blown away by the star's strong light, the 'curtain' vanishes and the star reappears... "Two hundred years after the discovery of the variable nature of R CrB, many aspects of the R CrB phenomenon remain mysterious," concludes de Laverny.
(Excerpt) Read more at eso.org ...
Artist rendering of the surroundings of a R Coronae Borealis star, as inferred from the observations obtained with ESO's Very Large Telescope. Such stars show erratic variability that is thought to arise from the presence of large clouds of dust in their envelope.
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http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1048872/posts?page=14#14
and
First astrophysical results with AMBER/VLTI [ interferometry ]
EurekAlert | Wednesday, February 21, 2007 | Jennifer Martin of Journal Astronomy & Astrophysics
Posted on 02/23/2007 3:18:36 AM EST by SunkenCiv
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1789673/posts
For a minute, I thought you were talking about Paris, getting caught with a bong.... ;o]
“A recent study by Australian researchers has indicated that the particulate matter surrounding various stars is comparable to cigarette smoke and may indeed cause cancer....”
Secondhand stars, yeah.
http://www.mpe.mpg.de/pke/PKE/Results1_e.html
“Due to this experiment we might soon understand what happens in the early phase of planetary formation in a protoplanetary disk and how from microscopic particles finally planets like the Earth form - with the help of electrical charging.”
We should name the next protoplanetary disk “Sparky” and see what happens.
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