For the very first time astronomers were successful in observing details of a star, Altair that is quite similar to our Sun. The astronomers used a technique that counters distortion caused by the Earth’s atmosphere in observing the details.
An artist later on used these details to produce the star’s image. The image produced showed presence of bright patches on its surface and a bulge caused by its rapid spin. The star also spins 60 times faster than the Sun.
These scientists from the University of Michigan used four telescopes simultaneously on Mount Wilson in California for the findings. These telescopes are a part of the Center for High Angular Resolution Astronomy (CHARA) operated by Georgia State University on Mount Wilson. They closely observed the differences of the telescope’s image and were able to compensate for the effects of our atmosphere.
This breakthrough was not the first for the scientists. Earlier to this, they had targeted red giants including, famously, Betelgeuse in Orion, which was mapped with the UK’s William Herschel Telescope on La Palma in the year 1989.
The details show that Altair is smaller than the red giants. Being the brightest stars in the sky it can be clearly seen in Aquila’s constellation, the Eagle. It is nearly twice as big as the Sun, is hotter, younger and about 17 light-years away.
John Monnier, lead author of a paper published in Science, said:
This powerful new tool allows us to zoom in on a star that’s a million times farther away than the sun. We’re testing the theories of how stars work in much more detail than ever before.
The scientists are also taking help of a British tool called SuperWASP that is set up for detection of extrasolar planets. The bank of the cameras records the dimming of a star’s light when a planet passes in transit across its disk. If a planet passes in front of a darker sunspot, the light of the star brightens again, revealing its presence. The astronomers have set up another planet spotter, Corot satellite to show similar details.
Source:skymania
