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Biggest, Brightest Star Puzzles Astronomers
Space.com ^ | January 6, 2003 | Tariq Malik

Posted on 1/7/2004, 2:02:04 PM by NYer

ATLANTA – A team of researchers has found what appears to be the most luminous known star around, one so massive that it shouldn’t have formed in the first place.

The star, known as LBV 1806-20, tips the scales of stellar masses at about 150 times the heft of the Sun. It shines up to 40 million times brighter than the Sun. The previous title-holder called the Pistol Star, is a mere six million times brighter than the Sun and weighs about 100 solar masses.

LBV 1806-20 was known before, but just as a bright blue object in high-powered telescopes. Now it has been examined more closely. Even if it proves to be a binary or triple-star system, and therefore all the mass is not its own, it would still be behemoth, astronomers said here yesterday at a meeting of the American Astronomical Society.

"It’s definitely not a cluster of stars, we can rule that out completely," explained Stephen Eikenberry, who led a team of researchers that studied the star. "It could be part of a binary or triple system, though it seems unlikely."

Light from LBV 1806-20 undergoes periodic variations that seem specific to a one-body object, Eikenberry said. If it is eventually found to be a binary or triple-star system, it would be even more confusing, since astronomers would have to explain how these massive stars manage to exist so close together, he said.

Doesn't make sense

Current theories of star formation fail to explain the existence of big, bright LBV 1806-20, since it should have destroyed itself before it ever ignited. Astronomers long believed that as young stars grew to 120 solar masses, their energy output would burn off any excess. That is, the heat and pressure within the still-forming star would be so great, it would shear off any additional material from the star’s surface.

Eikenberry is a professor of astronomy at the University of Florida.

One possible answer to the mystery of LBV 1806-20’s continued existence could be the neighborhood beyond the star's immediate surroundings. The star resides in a cluster populated by extremely rare star or unusual stars, including a intensely powerful magnetic neutron star and a massive protostar, one yet to be born.

"So it’s part of a giant cluster of freakishly massive stars," Eikenberry said.

LBV-1806-20 may have formed in what Eikenberry called "violent, triggered star formation." In the process, a huge, massive star reaches the end of its lifespan and explodes in an intense supernova. The shockwave from that supernova then hits a young star just as its forming, compressing gas around it quickly -- over a period of 100,000 years or so -- at forces greater than the star is able to blow off on its own.

Twinkle, twinkle massive star

Despite LBV 1806-20’s luminosity, it is all but hidden to researchers on the ground. From Earth, it has a magnitude of 8.4, beyond the limit of about 6.5 on an astronomer's scale in which larger numbers denote dimmer objects. It's relatively dim terrestrial eyes because it sits about 45,000 light-years away, on the other side of the Milky Way, and is almost completely obstructed by interstellar gas and dust. One light year is the distance light travels in one year, or about six trillion miles (9.7 trillion kilometers).

"Almost 90 percent of its light, visible and infrared, is absorbed by the interstellar medium," Eikenberry said.

But that doesn’t mean the star is invisible.

Eikenberry and his team were able to sharpen infrared images of LBV 1806-20 taken by the eight-foot (2.5 meter) telescope at the Palomar Observatory in California using a camera equipped with "speckle imaging," technology designed to mitigate the interfering effect of the Earth’s atmosphere on star observations. The team also used data collected with the four-meter Blanco telescope at the National Optical Astronomy Observatory’s Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory in Chile.

At its dimmest, LBV 1806-20 would be just as bright as its closest competitor, Pistol Star, with a temperature range of between 18,000 to 36,000 degrees Kelvin. Because it burns so bright, the star should have only a limited lifespan. Bright, massive stars tend to burn themselves out rather fast.

"These types of stars only run a short, violent, time, about two million years," Eikenberry said, noting that Earth’s Sun is about five billion years old. "They tend to erupt and do really bad things to themselves before they blow themselves to bits."

Stars like LBV 1806-20, which Eikenberry estimates is only middle-aged at about one million years old, can shed huge amounts of material in a wind similar to solar wind of the Sun. He said the huge star could end in a hypernova explosion with a powerful burst of gamma rays.


TOPICS: Extended News; Government; Miscellaneous; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: astronomy; crevolist; space; star; sun
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The star LBV 1806-20 is at least 150 times larger and 5 million times brighter than the Sun. The two are shown for size comparison in this artist's conception.

1 posted on 1/7/2004, 2:02:05 PM by NYer
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To: NYer

STRANGEST STAR KNOWN

A handful of astronomers first learned about a peculiar star called V838 Monocerotis in January 2002, when an unusual outburst was detected. The larger community didn't find out about V838 Mon, as it's called, until a year later, when researchers previewed striking Hubble Space Telescope images that revealed a puzzling series of newfound shells containing gas and dust around the star.

FULL TEXT

2 posted on 1/7/2004, 2:05:01 PM by NYer
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To: NYer
wow! neat post!
3 posted on 1/7/2004, 2:10:18 PM by wafflehouse (the hell you say!)
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To: NYer; newgeezer
Very interesting. We can add this to a very long list of things that fly in the face of cosmological models. Others include a galaxy that is about 90 times the diameter of the milkyway and a large lateral motion of a multi hundred million lightyear wall of galaxies that defies all big bang models. But there's more lots more. There was a magazine in Barnes and Nobel that had about 20 observation based reasons to doubt the big bang.
4 posted on 1/7/2004, 2:16:29 PM by biblewonk (I must try to answer all bible questions.)
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To: petuniasevan
Astronomy ping!
5 posted on 1/7/2004, 2:27:00 PM by Pyro7480 ("We are all born ignorant, but one must work hard to remain stupid" - Benjamin Franklin)
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To: biblewonk
Very interesting. We can add this to a very long list of things that fly in the face of cosmological models. Others include a galaxy that is about 90 times the diameter of the milkyway and a large lateral motion of a multi hundred million lightyear wall of galaxies that defies all big bang models. But there's more lots more. There was a magazine in Barnes and Nobel that had about 20 observation based reasons to doubt the big bang.

But this simply can't be so! I've had so many evolutionists insist that science has determined the big bang to be fact. When I asked one where the material came from that was used in the Big Bang, he insisted that science has also proven that it was sucked into existence through a rift. Of course he would never provide any support of his claims...they never do. Instead, he resorted to ad hominem attacks. Signs of a simple mind.

6 posted on 1/7/2004, 2:27:43 PM by highlander_UW
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To: NYer
Thanks for posting. I shall be interested to follow this story as we learn more about it.
7 posted on 1/7/2004, 2:32:37 PM by aBootes
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To: highlander_UW
I've had so many evolutionists insist that science has determined the big bang to be fact.

Well, from a christian point of view, I believe in the big bang theory...

Although slightly modified.

God said "Let there be light" and BANG there was light. ;)

8 posted on 1/7/2004, 2:40:26 PM by Johnny Gage (It is better to have a horrible ending... than to have horrors without end.)
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To: highlander_UW
I've had so many evolutionists insist that science has determined the big bang to be fact.

REALLY????? Wow. And here I thought astronomy dealt with that stuff, and evolution dealt with living organisms.

You guys might as well blame evolutionists for potholes and communism. Doh! You already do.

9 posted on 1/7/2004, 2:49:28 PM by Shryke
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To: PatrickHenry
Ping.
10 posted on 1/7/2004, 2:50:11 PM by Shryke
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To: NYer
Astronomers Call LBV 1806-20 the Superstar That Outshines All - NY Times

Infrared Observations of LBV 1806-20: American Astronomical Society

11 posted on 1/7/2004, 2:51:41 PM by FormerlyAnotherLurker
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To: NYer
That doesn't look accurate considering it's 150 stellar masses of our sun unless the big star is much less dense. Something 150 times as heavy wouldn't be 150 times as wide, unless the density was much less.
12 posted on 1/7/2004, 2:56:34 PM by #3Fan
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To: Johnny Gage
"God said "Let there be light" and BANG there was light. ;)"

The only big-bang theory that makes sense IMHO. The deeper we look into space, the more convinced I am that intelligent design was responsible.
13 posted on 1/7/2004, 2:57:23 PM by reagan_fanatic (Ain't Skeered...)
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To: Shryke
You guys might as well blame evolutionists for potholes and communism. Doh! You already do. Yes, really. It's not my fault he was using astronomy as his proof of evolution. He didn't have much of a grasp of the scientific method either.

As far as your spin regarding potholes and communism, well, you can take personal offense all you want...what I posted is still true, none the less. Sorry you felt you had to respond with a pointless blanket insult.

14 posted on 1/7/2004, 3:01:56 PM by highlander_UW
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To: *crevo_list; VadeRetro; jennyp; Junior; longshadow; RadioAstronomer; Physicist; LogicWings; ...
PING. [This ping list is for the evolution side of evolution threads, and sometimes for other science topics. FReepmail me to be added or dropped.]
15 posted on 1/7/2004, 3:10:06 PM by PatrickHenry (Felix, qui potuit rerum cognoscere causas.)
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Cool (Free!) Astronomy-related Software:
Please FReepmail other suggestions
  • Celestia: A real-time space simulation that lets you experience our universe in three dimensions. Unlike most planetarium software, Celestia doesn't confine you to the surface of the Earth. You can travel throughout the solar system, to any of over 100,000 stars, or even beyond the galaxy. All travel in Celestia is seamless; the exponential zoom feature lets you explore space across a huge range of scales, from galaxy clusters down to spacecraft only a few meters across. A 'point-and-goto' interface makes it simple to navigate through the universe to the object you want to visit.
  • Sky Screen Saver: Shows the sky above any location on Earth, including stars (from the Yale Bright Star Catalogue of more than 9000 stars to the 7th magnitude), the Moon in its correct phase and position in the sky, and the position of the Sun and all the planets in the sky.
    Outlines, boundaries, and names of constellations can be displayed, as well as names and Bayer/Flamsteed designations of stars brighter than a given threshold. A database of more than 500 deep-sky objects, including all the Messier objects and bright NGC objects can be plotted to a given magnitude. The ecliptic and celestial equator can be plotted, complete with co-ordinates.
  • Home Planet: A comprehensive astronomy / space / satellite-tracking package for Microsoft Windows 95/98/Me and Windows NT 4.0/2000/XP and above. Selected features:
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    • Panel showing positions of planets and a selected asteroid or comet, both geocentric and from the observer's location.
    • A sky map, based on either the Yale Bright Star Catalogue or the 256,000 star SAO catalogue, including rendering of spectral types, planets, earth satellites, asteroids and comets.
    • Databases of the orbital elements of 5632 asteroids and principal periodic comets are included, allowing selection of any for tracking.
    • A telescope window which can be aimed by clicking in the sky map or telescope itself, by entering coordinates, or by selecting an object in the Object Catalogue.
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    • Object Catalogue allows archiving images, sounds, and tabular data about celestial objects.
    • Orrery allows viewing the solar system, including a selected asteroid or comet, from any vantage point in space, in a variety of projections.
    • Satellite tracking panel. Select an Earth satellite from a database of two-line elements, and see its current position and altitude.
    • View Earth From panel allows you to view a texture-mapped image of the Earth as seen from the Sun, Moon, a selected Earth satellite, above the observing location, or the antisolar point.
    • Satellite database selection allows maintenance of multiple lists of satellites, for example TV broadcast, ham radio, low orbit, etc.
  • SETI@Home: A scientific experiment that uses Internet-connected computers in the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI). You can participate by running a free program that downloads and analyzes radio telescope data.

16 posted on 1/7/2004, 3:13:52 PM by martin_fierro (Any musical with a PBY-5 Catalina in it can't be all bad.)
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To: PatrickHenry
Thanks for the ping!
17 posted on 1/7/2004, 3:19:29 PM by Alamo-Girl
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To: martin_fierro
Cool!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! bump for HOME USE YEAH!
18 posted on 1/7/2004, 3:21:54 PM by FourtySeven (47)
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To: highlander_UW
Of course he would never provide any support of his claims...they never do. Instead, he resorted to ad hominem attacks. Signs of a simple mind.

Yes they sure do that. They say, You need to read more about science and Hawkings works and this and that and educate yourself, then you will understand what special law of physics allows nothing to blow up into a 100 billion galaxies. What's sad is that that tripe wins in public debate everytime becasue the public wants their ears ticked.

19 posted on 1/7/2004, 3:23:37 PM by biblewonk (I must try to answer all bible questions.)
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To: biblewonk
Yes they sure do that. They say, You need to read more about science and Hawkings works and this and that and educate yourself, then you will understand what special law of physics allows nothing to blow up into a 100 billion galaxies. What's sad is that that tripe wins in public debate everytime becasue the public wants their ears ticked.

Often that is the tack, but this guy wasn't that good at it. Instead he just referred to some prof friend who said he'd figured it all out...scientific "proof" and that sort of tripe.

I recall...the thread was on FR and the topic was: Is Atheism a Religion? I was pointing out that he was taking unprovable things on faith. I pointed out that if one backs it up enough, something has to be eternal, either it's matter or it's God...and the argument for matter breaks down.

20 posted on 1/7/2004, 3:31:33 PM by highlander_UW
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