Astronomer Predicts Two Stars Will Collide, Changing the Night Sky
A few years ago, Larry
Molnar, a professor at Calvin College, made a bold prediction: what
appeared to be a pulsing star, KIC 9832227, was in fact two stars,
rapidly orbiting each other on a collision course. It was a far fetched
explanation, but after extensive research, Molnar felt confident enough
to predict that the two stars would crash into each other around the
year 2022, creating a super-bright explosion that will for a brief time
outshine most other stars in the galaxy.
Molnar's student Daniel Van Noord was instrumental in coming to this conclusion.
"He
looked at how the color of the star correlated with brightness and
determined it was definitely a binary," Molnar said in a Calvin College article.
"In fact, he discovered it was actually a contact binary, in which the
two stars share a common atmosphere, like two peanuts sharing a single
shell."
When these
stars crash into each other, they'll die, and in doing so release a
massive amount of light and energy known as a red nova, increasing the
star's brightness by ten thousand times. At that time, it will be
visible as part of the constellation Cygnus and the Northern Cross star
pattern.
"If Larry's prediction is
correct, his project will demonstrate for the first time that
astronomers can catch certain binary stars in the act of dying, and that
they can track the last few years of a stellar death spiral up to the
point of final, dramatic explosion," Matt Walhout, dean for research and
scholarship at Calvin College said in the article.
"The
project is significant not only because of the scientific results, but
also because it is likely to capture the imagination of people on the
street," Walhout added. "If the prediction is correct, then for the
first time in history, parents will be able to point to a dark spot in
the sky and say, 'Watch, kids, there's a star hiding in there, but soon
it's going to light up.'"
Source: Calvin College
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