Gamma Columbae is visible to the naked eye, as the Swiss National Science Foundation announced Wednesday. The star is located about 900 light-years from Earth in the constellation Dove. The team found that Gamma Columbae formed a partner’s heart in an old binary and lost its envelope in the process of swallowing the co-star.
The discovery came more by chance. The researchers noticed that the surface of the star was drastically different from stars of similar mass. The chemical composition of Gamma Columbae can be expected to be in the central region of stars with three to four times the mass, as Geneva astrophysicist Georges Meynet, who was involved in the research project, explained in the National Funds Statement.
The simulation provides information
Nuclear reactions take place at the center of stars that change the composition of matter. Seeking an explanation, Meynet and his team simulated the evolution of the star. They gave the star in the model a mass three times greater and allowed it to lose its outer shell.
This simulation was consistent with Gamma Columbae’s observations. The celestial body indicates that it may have originally been the core of a much larger star. According to the National Fund, the research group suspects that Gamma Columbae belongs to a binary star system and orbits around a common center of gravity with the other star.
Based on this, the researchers hypothesize that Gamma Columbae swallowed the common star. This, as Meynet said, caused strong reactions, that is, shedding her own shell.
Gamma Columbae is nearing its end
Based on its composition, the researchers hypothesize that Gamma Columbae has reached about 90 percent of its lifespan, which is estimated to be ten million years. This means that the star must have had less than two million years before it exploded.
According to the Geneva astrophysicist Meynet, his object of study is in a very short developmental stage that is rarely observed. Using Gamma Columbae, it can study the past and future of binary stars in detail.
It is not yet clear whether such stars are really rare or simply hard to find. But as the National Fund wrote, it is clear that an unexpected story can be hidden behind a long-known star. This gives hope that more stars will reveal a surprising past.
The journal Nature Astronomy recently reported the research results.
(SDA)