Using NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory, astronomers have found what’s driving repeated outbursts from a giant, unstable star, NASA reports. A study in The Astrophysical Journal points to a previously hidden companion that pulls material off the star every 113 days. That partner is either a stellar-mass black hole or a neutron star.
The star, AT 2016blu, sits in the spiral galaxy NGC 4559, about 30 million light-years away, and is at least 33 times the mass of the Sun. It’s a luminous blue variable whose brightness spikes look almost like supernovas, except the star survives. This is the first X-ray detection of this class of erupting star, and the first one found with a black hole or neutron star companion.
University of Virginia’s Mojgan Aghakhanloo, who led the study: “For 15 years, astronomers have been watching this star get really bright and then dim again on a regular basis. Until we were able to get Chandra data at the right time, we couldn’t figure out what was making this happen.”
My take
Fifteen years of a mystery, solved because a telescope caught it at the right moment. The heavens keep preaching.
God Bless, and Happy hacking!
