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posted by martyb on Tuesday November 01 2016, @06:07PM   Printer-friendly
from the big-and-bright dept.

NASA has found fast-spinning and orange "pumpkin stars" that appear to be the squashed result of ongoing binary mergers:

Astronomers using observations from NASA's Kepler and Swift missions have discovered a batch of rapidly spinning stars that produce X-rays at more than 100 times the peak levels ever seen from the sun. The stars, which spin so fast they've been squashed into pumpkin-like shapes, are thought to be the result of close binary systems where two sun-like stars merge. "These 18 stars rotate in just a few days on average, while the sun takes nearly a month," said Steve Howell, a senior research scientist at NASA's Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, California, and leader of the team. "The rapid rotation amplifies the same kind of activity we see on the sun, such as sunspots and solar flares, and essentially sends it into overdrive."

The most extreme member of the group, a K-type orange giant dubbed KSw 71, is more than 10 times larger than the sun, rotates in just 5.5 days, and produces X-ray emission 4,000 times greater than the sun does at solar maximum. These rare stars were found as part of an X-ray survey of the original Kepler field of view, a patch of the sky comprising parts of the constellations Cygnus and Lyra.

Rapidly Rotating, X-ray Bright Stars in the Kepler Field (DOI: 10.3847/0004-637X/831/1/27) (DX) (arXiv:1608.07828)


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NASA Retires the Kepler Space Telescope after It Runs Out of Hydrazine 15 comments

NASA Retires Kepler Space Telescope

After nine years in deep space collecting data that indicate our sky to be filled with billions of hidden planets - more planets even than stars - NASA's Kepler space telescope has run out of fuel needed for further science operations. NASA has decided to retire the spacecraft within its current, safe orbit, away from Earth. Kepler leaves a legacy of more than 2,600 planet discoveries from outside our solar system, many of which could be promising places for life.

"As NASA's first planet-hunting mission, Kepler has wildly exceeded all our expectations and paved the way for our exploration and search for life in the solar system and beyond," said Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator of NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. "Not only did it show us how many planets could be out there, it sparked an entirely new and robust field of research that has taken the science community by storm. Its discoveries have shed a new light on our place in the universe, and illuminated the tantalizing mysteries and possibilities among the stars."

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  • (Score: 5, Funny) by Megahard on Tuesday November 01 2016, @07:07PM

    by Megahard (4782) on Tuesday November 01 2016, @07:07PM (#421355)

    Apparently NASA just discovered a presidential candidate.

  • (Score: 4, Funny) by Azuma Hazuki on Tuesday November 01 2016, @07:55PM

    by Azuma Hazuki (5086) on Tuesday November 01 2016, @07:55PM (#421376) Journal

    Did they find a Spice Star, an Ugg-boots Star, and a Basic White Chick star nearby? ...though the last one may be hard to find as it can't even/

    --
    I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
  • (Score: 2) by rts008 on Tuesday November 01 2016, @08:07PM

    by rts008 (3001) on Tuesday November 01 2016, @08:07PM (#421383)

    Oh great, now even the stars are getting into the whole Halloween spectacle!
    ...or...
    This is what happens when intoxicants are involved in astronomer's Halloween parties...

    • (Score: 2) by takyon on Tuesday November 01 2016, @09:43PM

      by takyon (881) <takyonNO@SPAMsoylentnews.org> on Tuesday November 01 2016, @09:43PM (#421416) Journal

      I would be interested to know whether the paper's official release (not arxiv) was timed to hit late October, or if the publicity geniuses at NASA just nailed this one.

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