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Type-Be stars, known as “vampire stars”, are believed to destroy the mass of nearby stars.
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Scientists are trying to figure out how this happens.
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New research shows that a third star may be facilitating the mass transit.
A hidden third star, new research in a peer-reviewed journal could help identify massive “vampire” stars that feast on their celestial companions. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society received.
A subset of Be-Type stars, characterized by their large size and surrounding gas rings B-type stars, which is very warm, bright, and blue. The subtype makes up about 20% of the B-type star population, Jonathan Dodd, Ph.D. student and one of the study’s lead co-authors, Business Insider said.
The nickname “vampire stars” comes from the most widely accepted theory of how Be-Type stars form rings, researchers said in the study — by sucking the metaphorical necks of interstellar victims.
Type-Be stars, as they spin rapidly, collect material from a companion star, the theory says. This material then surrounds the star as a ring and causes the Be-type star to spin faster as it accretes more from its companion. These companions, which become even smaller due to the loss of matter, can be anything from a neutron star to a white dwarf.
However, how they began the process of rapidly rotating and gathering material was a mystery. Regular B-type stars also had companions they didn’t feast on, so what made the two different?
The researchers say that a previously unobserved third star is likely to facilitate the mass transfer by bringing the Be-Type star and its companion closer together, just as a vampire’s curse might result in a victim. to her master.
“We didn’t go into the study thinking we’d find triples, but we went in looking for how often these stars were doubles, but based on our results, triples were the most reasonable explanation for what we had to see. ” said Dodd.
‘Triples are the new doubles’
The University of Leeds scientists used data from the European Space Agency satellites — the Hipparcos and the Gaia — to map the stars of the universe.
The team looked at Be-Type stars by comparing the positions of different stars over longer and shorter periods. The team also looked at B-type stars to compare the two.
Researchers said that if the positions of the stars moved in a straight line, there was only one star in the system. If it was wobbled or spiraled, one of the stars was a companion star. This is because gravitational forces affect the movement of stars.
However, the team was surprised to find that they relied on a higher rate of binary systems for B-type stars than for Be-Type stars. Furthermore, when researchers found companions for type-Be stars, the distance between their companions and type-B stars – which do not have the characteristic rings – was quite similar.
The researchers then extended their search to see if Be-Type stars had companions much further. That’s when the companion rate began to equalize between B-type stars and Be-type stars.
This led researchers to believe that the third star was actually the distant companion they saw to the Be-Type stars.
Because three-star systems are inherently unstable, the stars, which start out close to each other, shoot out one star. The force of the third star that is quickly ejected from the group can pull the type-Be star and its companion close together to start feeding.
Dodd told Business Insider that this phenomenon is more common in other triple-star systems, which also gave credence to his explanation that Type-Be stars were no different.
Researchers said this could also explain why Type-Be stars were observed to have lower rates of mating – once the Type-Be stars pulled everything. mass from the companion stars, they became too weak to detect, the researchers speculated.
The team is now looking at future research to further observe these Type-B stars and hope that their study will help inform astronomers about other phenomena, such as black holes, neutron stars, or gravitational sources. Dodd said that these “close-in” multi-star systems could be the “agents” of these phenomena.
Dodd said their research also means scientists need to start paying more attention to triple-star systems.
“Triples are the new doubles,” Dodd said, “and the presence of nearby stars affects the lives of stars more often than previously thought.”
Read the original article on Business Insider
