Posted on 06/09/2009 9:46:50 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
WASHINGTON (AFP) – A massive bright reddish star in the Orion constellation has mysteriously shrunk by over 15 percent in the last 15 years and astronomers have not yet determined why, according to a study released Tuesday.
Betelgeuse, considered a supergiant star, is so large that it would reach to Jupiter's orbit in our solar system. But at a radius of about five astronomical units, the star has shrunk in size since 1993 by a distance equivalent to Venus's orbit.
"To see this change is very striking," University of California, Berkley professor Charles Townes, who whon the 1964 Nobel Prize in physics for inventing the laser, said in a statement.
"We will be watching it carefully over the next few years to see if it will keep contracting or will go back up in size."
According to Townes, the star's size diminished "smoothly, but faster as the years progressed."
The findings were presented Tuesday at a meeting of the American Astronomical Society in Pasadena, California, and were based on readings collected at UC Berkeley's Infrared Spatial Interferometer (ISI) atop Mount Wilson in Southern California.
Edward Wishnow, a UC Berkeley research physicist who worked with Townes on the study, said the researchers did not know why the star was shrinking.
"Considering all that we know about galaxies and the distant universe, there are still lots of things we don't know about stars, including what happens as red giants near the ends of their lives," Wishnow said.
Red supergiant stars are suspected to explode into type-II supernovas, cosmic explosions due to a massive star's internal collapse.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
Someone is turning the light out.
Not making this easy for me at all, are you?
Nobody said it was gonna be easy.....;-D
I have read for years that this star ebbs and flows in brightness.
And, you never promised a rose garden either.
Huh? What the hell are you talking about? Your statement made no sense, was contradictory, and if I interpret correctly, not even CLOSE to the working theory of how star lifecycles function.
I don’t call myself an evolutionist, I think it has lots of holes, but when those who actively oppose it can’t even refute a theory by restating the most basic aspects of it, it makes you look like a friggin’ idiot and does your position a disservice.
Not even close! Want to try again?
Well, how does it work then Einstein? I have a basic understanding of the nuclear fusion process, hydrogen is the fuel and helium is the by-product.
What is the name of the woman that proved Einstein’s theory of relativity, genius? Since you’re so smart...
Instead of ridiculing me for going by 35 year old elementary school memory, why don’t you correct me then, and be productive in the process, genius?
What’s the name of the woman that proved Einstein’s theory of relativity?
I’m not deriding you. But you have confused the forming of a white dwarf with the process which a much larger star goes through to form a black hole. Our star will likely eventually become a white dwarf, but is not massive enough to collapse into/become a black hole. And the phrasing regarding ‘taking in helium’ is, well, cryptic at best.
Would the gamma rays travel faster than light ?
It’s cryptic, yes, but it’s cryptic based on a 35 year old recollection.
Also, while nuclear fusion is complex, the fuel and by-product aren’t. Hydrogen in, helium out. That’s all most of us need to know, really.
Sorry, but the previous poster got a bit smarmy about it and you got caught in the crossfire.
Do you her name, BTW?
Before Sir Arthur Eddington did it in 1920?
Apologies. I meant the mass-energy equivalence formula
Actually, I was right the first time. Eddington evidenced it, but he never actually physically mathematically proved it.
It was a woman. What was her name?
Are you thinking of Emmy Noether?
Arrrgh!
I’ll be humming that wretched song in my head all day!
Nope. You give up yet?
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