Royal Astronomical Society | 2015 Dec 03
[img3="A panel of images showing the turbulent clouds of stardust enveloping and concealing CW Leo. In the space of a few years these tore apart a seemingly stable configuration to reveal an entirely new face. Reconstructed from interferometric observations obtained at observatories with some of the largest telescopes in the world including Keck and the VLT, as well as from stellar occultations by the rings of Saturn observed with the Cassini spacecraft.New images of an intriguing red giant star, known as CW Leonis, have turned the usual astronomy narrative on its head, with scrutiny focused not only on the stars but also on the astronomers who study them. In just a couple of years, the 400 light-year distant CW Leo has changed its appearance completely, meaning a whole set of carefully constructed models have been abandoned. ...
Credit: Paul Stewart and Peter Tuthill, University of Sydney"]http://www.ras.org.uk/images/stories/pr ... /CWLeo.jpg[/img3][hr][/hr]
Stars like our Sun become red giants near the end of their lives, after most of their available hydrogen fuel has been consumed. These huge objects -- tens of times the size of our star -- will eventually eject most of their atmosphere into space and create a planetary nebula, leaving behind a hot core that cools down over billions of years. CW Leo is nearing the end of its red giant stage and starting to throw out large amounts of matter.
“Although it is invisible to our eyes, to astronomers CW Leo is one of the most famous stars in the sky.” explains Stewart. “If we could see infrared light, it would be by far the brightest star in the sky. However the real excitement here is the extreme physics -- it is a swollen luminous giant poised at the most self-destructive phase of its existence. It is literally tearing itself apart under its own glare, hurling dense clouds of dust and gas out into the galaxy; dying amidst its own glorious final fireworks display.” ...
Stellar Chameleon Had Astronomers Fooled for Years
University of Sydney | 2015 Dec 04
The Weather Report from IRC+10216: Evolving Irregular Clouds Envelop Carbon Star - P. N. Stewart et al
- Monthly Notices of the RAS 455(3):3102 (2016 Jan 21) DOI: 10.1093/mnras/stv2454
arXiv.org > astro-ph > arXiv:1510.05929 > 20 Oct 2015