Latest Cataclysmic variable star Stories

A team of Chinese astronomers have discovered a giant planet close to the exotic binary star system QS Virginis. Although dormant now, in the future the two stars will one day erupt in a violent nova outburst. Professor Shengbang Qian of Yunnan Observatory leads the team of scientists who report their work in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.QS Virginis lies in the direction of the constellation of Virgo and is about 157 light years from the Sun. The system is...

Cataclysmic variable starsThis week, Astronomy & Astrophysics publishes a somewhat unusual research article because it is co-authored by German high-school students. Led by astronomer Klaus Beuermann (University of Göttingen, Germany), the team [1] involves a secondary school physics teacher, three students from two high schools in Göttingen [2], and three professional astronomers. The team made use of a remotely-controlled 1.2-meter telescope in Texas [3], funded by the Alfried...

Observations of the interacting binary star using telescopes at Kitt Peak National Observatory and NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope suggest that the disks of hot gas that accumulate around a wide variety of astronomical objects"”from degenerate stars in energetic binary systems to supermassive black holes at the hearts of active galaxies"”are likely to be much larger than previously believed.The target of this specific investigation, named WZ Sagittae (WZ Sge), is an interacting binary star...

NOAO -- New Spitzer Space Telescope observations of an unusual class of interacting binary stars detected excess amounts of infrared radiation, suggesting that these odd objects are surrounded by large disks of cool dust. The results reported today in Washington, DC, at the 207th meeting of the American Astronomical Society (AAS) were produced by one of six teams of professional astronomers and high school teachers participating in a unique program co-sponsored by the Spitzer Science Center...

AAVSO -- Amateur astronomers are being asked to help a constellation of observatories unravel the mysteries of a puzzling binary star system. On August 30-August 31, 2005 two space-based and four professional ground-based observatories are scheduled to observe the cataclysmic variable star AE Aqr. Each of the observatories covers a different wavelength of light and amateur astronomers have been asked to help cover the visible-light portion. "This observing campaign will take place over nearly...

RAS -- New supercomputer simulations may help explain periodic bursts of light emitted by compact binary star systems. Cataclysmic variables are binary systems that consist of a white dwarf and a normal star. The dense white dwarf drags material from its companion star, creating an accretion disc of matter around itself, and a hotspot develops where the gas stream from the star crashes into the accretion disc. On Wednesday 6th April at the RAS National Astronomy Meeting in Birmingham, Dr...