Once Around Algol - the demon star

We have know that there is something odd about Algol since antiquity. But there are several puzzles and some surprising twists to the story

[PureRedRageMan]

no nonsense, plain speaking, no hype, no bait - this is what should be promoted on youtube. Thanks for doing these sir.

[klomptphuh]

There's no hyperbole and no assigning human emotions to the cosmos. There is just clear, unfettered information. Thank you, Mr. Fellows.

[simateix]

First video I saw from you and immiately hit the subscribe 👌

[Vernon-gnwb]

Wow I thought there was only a couple of star systems that passed close by, this one I haven't even heard of. you learn something new everyday!

[DanielVerberne]

Paul, I recently lost my beloved father at 72 years. He was the source of my fascination with space. Your content is a balm to my soul in his absence - thank you sincerely for this work you are doing.

[fastbow]

I love these pieces and the way you present them keep up the good work makes my observations much more enjoyable, thanks!

[PlanofBattle]

Remarkable presentation. Just wonderful.

[publiusrunesteffensen]

I'm promoting this channel when I can. Have already recommended it to several friends and also just posted a link to it on a BBC Global short video about the sun.

[rozzgrey]

Algol would be a great system to use in a sci-fi story scenerio, with an Algolian civilisation seeding Earth during its close 10 light year flyby 7 million years ago. Archeologists find our fear and legends of the Demon star are based on ancient relics they left behind, including a starship enabling some intrepid explorers to travel 94 light years to Algol to see if the Algolians are still around. What they discover will change everything!

[SailorCanisMajoris]

I love that i have so much more to watch from you!

[RobinCrusoe]

Just chanced upon these brilliant cosmological insights.
The narration, content and visualisation are outstanding.
I have subscribed and have a lot of catching up to do.
Many thanks.

[thetexasgunvault]

I really enjoy these videos. I learn so much.

[MrStick-ocyo]

Living near a large city, I often regret missing so many features of the dark night sky. Much of what was easily visible to the ancients is now obscured by light pollution.

[cthulumytoast]

I am personally fascinated with Brown Dwarfs. If any object would give me a lifetime of work in astronomy, I would hope it is the Brown Dwarfs.

[davidforal]

I did a quick lookup on how to determine the age of stars; it wasn't very clear to me and seems to be a difficult thing to do. Maybe you can do a presentation on how to determine the age of stars. I did a search of your channel and didn't find that topic. Thank you for your very interesting videos - I always learn something.

[stevenpilling]

It came that close and that soon in the past? What a spectacle that must have been for early Man! I'd like to know more about Algol C, though. Conceivably, it could host a living planet in the future... or even now. What is its separation from the inner pair? It would also be interesting if there are low mass M stars in the system.

[JohnTheRamblingScriblerian]

Because I love thinking about such things... It makes me wonder if, in the far future, on the order of billions of years, there could not be a world friendly to at least simple forms of life. Maybe even a Pre-Cambrian level biosphere (I know, such one-to-one comparisons don't really work, but I'll go with it for ease). The A component will age relatively quickly, and leave behind a K dwarf, and with growing conversations about the evolution of white dwarfs creating possible "second generation" worlds, I wonder if such a planet might be possible. Yeah, likely not... but it's a fun speculation.

Thank you for your Outstanding content!

[bardmadsen]

I was reading about Perseus and Medussa last night in The Metamorphoses of Ovid 1912. It has to be about the meteors from the radiant traveling through the differing moving air masses of the atmosphere producing undulating streaks as if snakes falling from the sky. Didn't know about the pulsing and The Egyptians. You must know, I ran across a site that showed the movements of our closest stars years ago and can not find it again. Reminded me of the fist half of The Cosmic Serpent by Victor Clube and Bill Napier, BTW, someone should talk them into republishing that book, it goes for ~$300 today. I've already read it twice, I recall seeing it for sale in a grocery store in the early 1980's but couldn't afford $16 a that moment. Later I had to go to the down town library in a huge city to read it.

[canastable]

The blue star could be described as a vampire star. It is increasing its life span by stealing material from the orange star.

[annsidbrant]

What is strange about Algol is that the primary star is a blue main sequence star of 3.2 solar masses and spectral class B, whereas the red giant is only 0.7 solar masses and spectral class K. We always expect the more massive star to evolve faster and become a red giant sooner! Also, we don't expect a 3.2 solar mass star to stay on the main sequence as a blue B-type star for 500 million years. That's how we know that mass transfer must have occurred between these two stars, making the blue star gain mass and making the red star lose mass.