NASA | A Young Star Flaunts its X-ray Spots

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Using combined data from a trio of orbiting X-ray telescopes, including NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory and the Japan-led Suzaku satellite, astronomers have obtained a rare glimpse of the powerful phenomena that accompany a still-forming star. A new study based on these observations indicates that intense magnetic fields drive torrents of gas into the stellar surface, where they heat large areas to millions of degrees. X-rays emitted by these hot spots betray the newborn star's rapid rotation.

Astronomers first took notice of the young star, known as V1647 Orionis, in January 2004, near the peak of an outburst. The eruption had brightened the star so much that it illuminated a conical patch of dust now known as McNeil's Nebula. Both the star and the nebula are located about 1,300 light-years away in the constellation Orion.

Astronomers quickly determined that V1647 Ori was a protostar, a stellar infant still partly swaddled in its birth cloud. Protostars have not yet developed the energy-generating capabilities of a normal star such as the sun, which fuses hydrogen into helium in its core. For V1647 Ori, that stage lies millions of years in the future. Until then, the protostar shines from the heat energy released by the gas that continues to fall onto it, much of which originates in a rotating circumstellar disk.

The mass of V1647 Ori is likely only about 80 percent of the sun's, but its low density bloats it to nearly five times the sun's size. Infrared measurements show that most of the star's surface has a temperature around 6,400 degrees Fahrenheit (3,500 C), or about a third cooler than the sun's.

Yet during outbursts, the protostar's X-ray brightness increases by 100 times and the temperature of its X-ray-emitting regions reaches about 90 million F (50 million C).

The team found strong similarities among 11 separate X-ray light curves based on data from Chandra, Suzaku and the European Space Agency's XMM-Newton satellites. These similarities allowed them to identify cyclic X-ray variations establishing that the star spins once each day. V1647 Ori is among the youngest stars whose spin rates have been determined using an X-ray-based technique.

The cyclic X-ray changes represent the appearance and disappearance of hot regions on the star that rotate in and out of view. The model that best agrees with the observations, say the researchers, involves two hot spots of unequal brightness located on opposite sides of the star. Both spots are thought to be pancake-shaped areas about the size of the sun, but the more southerly spot is about five times brighter.

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Birth, we get to see cosmic death all the time, but cosmic birth is amazing too! great find!

JimmMyHero
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This is one of those incredible finds the crew of the star ship voyager would stop to study on their way back from the delta quadrant.

mtlh
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Por eso me interesan de sobremanera estas observaciones; estrellas interactuando con sus ambientes matrices; la nube de escombros y gas no tiene la energía cinética para quedarse girando alrededor de la nueva estrella, pero la nueva estrella ya está convertida en un sol, toda su superficie tiene la temperatura de un sol y su ambiente cercano también: ¿cómo se comporta el gas y los escombros que siguen cayendo hacia la reciente estrella? ¡Cómo se sigue incrementando la masa de la nueva estrella?

ROBINSONMARTE
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Lol ur thumbnail looks like universe sandbox 2 lol even part of the video lol

bread
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Now I'm craving Jawbreakers hard candy...

Loafy
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I am very aware of that fact. Thanks for your comment.

mtlh
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what is the temperature of a black hole?

justaname
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1300 anni luce significa guardare la nascita e la formazione di quel sistema solare, chissà se oggi esiste ancora e com'è

VittoMar
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Esos modelos matemáticos de supernovas están fallando a la hora de hacerlas explotar porque se está obviando un aspecto fundamental en la formación de una estrella, y con el estudio de las jóvenes estrellas, o las protoestrellas, y su interacción con las nubes que las terminan de formar está la solución al problema. En esta información de la Orionis:"los astrónomos determinaron rápidamente que v1647 Ori fue una protoestrella, un bebé estelar, aún parcialmente envuelta en su nube de nacimiento"

ROBINSONMARTE
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Y esta es una clave en la solución, que copio de los "Detalles":"Las protoestrellas todavía no han desarrollado las capacidades de generación de energía de una estrella normal tales como El Sol, que fusiona hidrógeno en helio en su núcleo.Para V1647 Ori, esa etapa se encuentra a millones de años en el futuro"; y "la masa de V1647 Ori es probable que sólo sea alrededor del 80 por ciento de la del sol, ". ¿Cuánta masa le falta para iniciar la fusión nuclear? ¡Qué pasará cuando eso ocurra? ¡La nube!!

ROBINSONMARTE
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A black hole takes in everything, even light. Because of physics, they can not take in stars. What if they could?
Everything with mass causes a distortion in time. A black hole has a the largest amount, so it creates a very huge distortion or bulge on the plane. What if a black hole forms inside the black hole? Eventually causing too much strain on the plane, ripping it, and causing the big bang? Then it would be for every black hole, there is a universe. impractical, but awesome. a Multiverse?

TooDamPro
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Estas observaciones de jóvenes estrellas o proto estrellas me son muy importantes porque la solución a: "¿Por qué no explotará la supernova?", la voy a explicar adentrándome en el fondo de la supernova y yendo al origen de ella (://ciencia.nasa.gov/ciencias-especiales/15jun_nustar/), colóquele al principio el "h t t p" a ese vínculo y cópielo en su navegador para que pueda ver el artículo de la NASA en el cual difunden cómo en los modelos computarizados de supernovas éstas no explotan.

ROBINSONMARTE
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I don't think you understand how a black hole forms.. and no the sun is not a replica of a black hole.

RogueStatux
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or they have a different sence of humor.

demnwarrior
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i reject your hypothesis and substitute my own. you are a troll, i am feeding the troll, and of coarse the visuals are fake, lets see you film something millions of miles away with such perfect clarity, and precision. and fyi its the geeks who get the money, because without us all the electronics would be non functional, and you wouldn't have a means to troll.

demnwarrior