The star that everyone missed

An X-ray observatory discovered a star exploding in the Milky Way, but observers have not noticed this event at all.

Calculations indicate that the sudden starlight is completely visible to the naked eye, but no one reports anything until the European Space Agency's XMM-Newton telescope discovers a flare up. sudden of cosmic X-rays.

On October 9, 2007, when changing the target, XMM-Newton went through a brilliant X-ray source that no one expected. This light source was not listed in any of the previous X-ray lists, but the mysterious object illuminated XMM-Newton's cosmic vision.

The latest V598 Puppis star, randomly detected by XMM-Newton.The outline of the X-ray, indicating the location of the new star appears, is coated on a set of images (infrared, red and blue) from the SuperCOSMOS (SSS) Sky Survey, Royal Observatory, Edinburgh.Photo: Credit: ESA / XMM-Newton / EPIC / SSS.

XMM-Newton's group searched for three possible candidates at this position, including a fuzzy star known only for USNO-A2.0 0450-03360039. Andy Read of Leicester University and Richard Saxton of ESA's European Astronomical Center (ESAC), Spain, quickly sent e-mail to other astronomers about the newly released X-ray source. show.

Further investigation

Astronomers used a 6.5-meter Magellan-Clay telescope at Las Campanas Observatory in Chile, and found that USNO-A2.0 0450-03360039 was 600 times brighter than normal. Analyzing the light from the source helps them classify the aforementioned objects into new types of stars.

New stars often appear when a small, solid star, called a white star, absorbs gas from a nearby star. Gas builds up on white stars until a nuclear reaction releases a large amount of energy, causing the white star to explode and glow brightly.

XMM-Newton's artistic perspective.Photo: C. Carreau - ESA

That leads to a confusing problem. This explosion does not release the X-rays immediately, because the clouds created by the debris from the explosion temporarily obscure the X-rays. Therefore, although no one reported but the explosion must occur. days before XMM-Newton discovered X-rays,

Amateur and professional astronomers look for newly discovered stars by regularly observing the night sky to search for stars or objects that glow suddenly - but not only people who are new close to the sky. Saxton contacted the All Sky Automated Survey project and asked astronomers to check their data. They found that the process of star formation occurred on June 5, 2007, and it was bright enough to be observed with the naked eye.

Saxton said: 'Anyone who goes out that night and looks at Puppis constellation can see this phenomenon'.

Stay tuned

The new star is now officially named V598 Puppis and has become one of the brightest stars for nearly a decade, although it was not discovered in the most brilliant period. When information about its existence is transmitted, the global effort to detect its disappearing light becomes very powerful.

The galaxy map shows all the objects observed by XMM-Newton, one of which is the newly emerging star V598 Puppis.The map is color-coded, low-energy sources are red, and larger energy sources are green.At the same time, the light source is shown larger on the map.This diagram is in the cosmic coordinates (the center of the diagram coincides with the center of the Milky Way).Photo: ESA / XMM-Newton / EPIC (R. Saxton et al.)

Read said: 'Suddenly a series of data about stars were collected. With work like this, the contribution of the amateur community is as important as the professional world '.

The story has a good end thanks to XMM-Newton, the telescope covering 30% of the sky and has recorded 7,700 X-ray sources. However, this event has caused astronomers to wonder whether there are examination. The other is not paid attention to or not.