Time Keeping Using Stars as Clocks...

[Zohaar818]

Bizarre Star Brightens Like Clockwork

 

Astronomers have spent five months studying a very strange star--one that is 10 times as massive as our sun and spews 100 trillion tons of gas into space each second--and have found a method to its mad behavior. Presenting their results yesterday at a meeting of the Canadian Astronomical Society in Montreal, the researchers report that the object, WR123, undergoes a stable variation that repeats every 10 hours.

 

Full story at

http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?chanID=sa003&articleID=000176A1-5892-128A-982D83414B7F0000

 

Looks like astronomers are going to have to come up with yet another theory to suit what they see...and I can't wait to hear it...

-Zohaar

[maddog]

I remember Wolf-Rayet Stars when I studied Astrophysics. I am now wondering if

Eta Carinae is considered on of these types. I have heard it to be a Hypergiant

(maybe a 100 solar masses or so). Though it storms and light variance is similarly

chaotic as described in this article.

 

maddog