NASA’s Chandra Finds Source of Star’s Mysterious Outbursts - NASA Science

NASA’s Chandra Finds Source of Star’s Mysterious Outbursts - NASA Science

Using NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory, astronomers have discovered what is triggering repeated outbursts from a giant, unstable star. A new study, published Monday in the latest issue of The Astrophysical Journal, details the discovery of a previously hidden companion object that keeps pulling material away from the massive star every 113 days as they orbit […]

A hidden companion may be fueling a giant star’s mysterious outbursts

A giant star in a nearby galaxy keeps flaring up and then going quiet. NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory has caught it in the act, and the burst of X-rays points to a possible culprit: a hidden companion that pulls gas off the star. The discovery gives astronomers a way to investigate a kind of stellar […]

NASA Finds Hidden Companion Behind Star’s Repeated Explosions

For more than a decade, astronomers have watched a giant star in another galaxy undergo repeated episodes of extraordinary brightening. Its outbursts were powerful enough to resemble the sudden appearance of a supernova, yet the star survived each event and eventually returned to its quieter state. Now, new observations from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory have […]

A giant star fakes a supernova every 113 days because a collapsed star feeds on it

Chandra caught AT 2016blu, a star at least 33 times the Sun's mass, blazing in X-rays during one of its supernova-like outbursts. Only gas falling onto a black hole or a neutron star can make that much X-ray light.

Source of Star's Mysterious Outbursts Found | NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory

Source of Star's Mysterious Outbursts Found | NASA's Chandra X-ray ObservatoryAstronomers using NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory have discovered what is triggering repeated outbursts from a giant, unstable star located in the constellation Coma Berenices. The new study has unearthed a previously hidden companion object that keeps pulling material away from the massive star every 113 days as they orbit one another.The volatile star, known as AT 2…