To learn more about ZTF SLRN-2020, De analyzed the spectrum of light from the bright outburst. The Zwicky Transient Facility scans the sky for stars that rapidly change in brightness, which could be events such as novas. The initial discovery was made by analyzing data collected by the Zwicky Transient Facility, run at the California Institute of Technology's Palomar Observatory. "I was looking for a much more common type of outburst called novae." Novas are stellar explosions that can happen when a red giant pours fuel onto a companion white dwarf star. "The work started back in 2020 when I was not looking for this type of event, actually," De said. During the event, a star brightened by a factor of 100 over the course of a week. In the new study, De and his colleagues made their breakthrough after examining a burst of radiation dubbed ZTF SLRN-2020, which took place in 2020 in the Milky Way's disk about 12,000 light-years away, near the constellation Aquila. So finding a potentially rare event for the first time is always exciting." "Planetary engulfment has been a fundamental prediction in our understanding of stars and planets, but their frequency have been very uncertain. "Honestly, one of the biggest surprises for me was that we found it in the first place," De said in an email.
0 kommentar(er)
