Astronomers discover rare hybrid pulsating star

Astronomers discover rare hybrid pulsating star.

(Web Desk) – The discovery of magnetic hybird pulsating stars by a group of astronomers could help in answering many questions about the evolution of stars.

The new model proposed by the team has marked to be an improvement for the way stars used to be measured back in 2017.

The team lead Keivan Stassun who is the Evolutionary Studies Initiative member and Stevenson Professor of Physics and Astronomy said that, "Being able to combine all of the different types of measurements into one coherent analysis was certainly key to being able to decipher the various unusual characteristics of this star system.”

While the new model had made many contributions by helping the scientists in figuring out the different aspects of the astronomical bodies like it has given some idea to the researchers about the types of planets orbiting distant stars known as the exoplanets. The model also helped in identifying the characteristics of more than 100 stars that were discovered by the TESS space telescope and thousands of others. But the new binary star system that is actually two stars orbiting each other revealed a great big deal about the evolution of stars.

"This type of star is so extremely unusual that, frankly, we would not have thought to go looking for it—nobody has seen one before!" said Stassun.

It’s not uncommon to come across a binary star system in the universe but the uniqueness of this model lies in it’s orientation as when this system is viewed from planet earth the star eclipse each other. Therefore it becomes easier for the scientist to calculate the mass and luminosity of this system.

One of the stars in this binary system showcases two rear types of stellar pulsating that exist. The stars can change their size and luminosity and process is known as pulsating and with studying this process helps astronomers in understanding inner working of the stars. Similarly the scientists on earth use the earthquake vibrations to study the internal structure of the planet.

"Stars exhibiting either of those pulsating behaviors are quite rare a star exhibiting hybrid pulsating behavior is even more so," Stassun said.

Another amazing discovery is the stars unique magnetic field that has been termed to be a rare characteristic in hybrid stars and the scientist believe that this could provide some major insights to understand the stellar evolution.

Further talking about it Stassun said that, "This is the first time that one of these rare magnetic hybrid pulsating stars has been found that is part of a star cluster and that is moreover a part of an eclipsing binary system. It seems quite unlikely that TESS will discover another star that has all of these attributes together."

While a graduate Dax Feliz, who had played a major role in this project, has stated that, “The discovery of this rare eclipsing binary star system provides a fantastic test bed for understanding how stellar binaries evolve over time. As the TESS mission continues observing large patches of sky, star systems like HD 149834 which are located in star clusters can help us further our understanding of stellar evolution."