Scientists Spot A White Dwarf Giving Its Companion Star A Cosmic Lashing
- 8 years ago
A team of astronomers has uncovered the strange behavior of a binary star system called AR Scorpii.
A team of astronomers has uncovered the strange behavior of a binary star system called AR Scorpii.
As a news release by the European Southern Observatory states, “It comprises a rapidly spinning white dwarf, the size of Earth but containing 200,000 times more mass, and a cool red dwarf companion one third the mass of the Sun, orbiting one another every 3.6 hours…”
The release describes their interaction as “brutal” because electrons accelerated by the white dwarf “release radiation in a lighthouse-like beam which lashes across the face of the cool red dwarf star.”
As a result, the system pulses every 1.97 minutes with the flashes including radiation at radio frequencies.
The spinning white dwarf is believed to be responsible for the radiation which “is indicative of emission from electrons accelerated in magnetic fields.”
However, astronomers are still uncertain about the “source of the electrons themselves… it is not clear whether it is associated with the white dwarf itself, or its cooler companion.”
This binary star system was first spotted in the 1970s but had been “incorrectly classified as a lone variable star.”
A team of astronomers has uncovered the strange behavior of a binary star system called AR Scorpii.
As a news release by the European Southern Observatory states, “It comprises a rapidly spinning white dwarf, the size of Earth but containing 200,000 times more mass, and a cool red dwarf companion one third the mass of the Sun, orbiting one another every 3.6 hours…”
The release describes their interaction as “brutal” because electrons accelerated by the white dwarf “release radiation in a lighthouse-like beam which lashes across the face of the cool red dwarf star.”
As a result, the system pulses every 1.97 minutes with the flashes including radiation at radio frequencies.
The spinning white dwarf is believed to be responsible for the radiation which “is indicative of emission from electrons accelerated in magnetic fields.”
However, astronomers are still uncertain about the “source of the electrons themselves… it is not clear whether it is associated with the white dwarf itself, or its cooler companion.”
This binary star system was first spotted in the 1970s but had been “incorrectly classified as a lone variable star.”