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L-type Supergiant
A luminous red nova (abbr. ''LRN'', pl. ''luminous red novae'', pl.abbr. ''LRNe'') is a stellar explosion thought to be caused by the stellar collision, merging of two stars. They are characterised by a distinct red colour, and a light curve that fades slowly with resurgent brightness in the infrared. Luminous red novae are not related to standard novae, which are explosions that occur on the surface of white dwarf stars. Discovery A small number of objects exhibiting the characteristics of luminous red novae have been observed over the last 30 years or so. The red star M31 RV in the Andromeda Galaxy flared brightly during 1988 and may have been a luminous red nova. In 1994, V4332 Sagittarii, a star in the Milky Way galaxy, flared similarly, and in 2002, V838 Monocerotis followed suit and was studied quite closely. The first confirmed luminous red nova was the object M85 OT2006-1, in the galaxy Messier 85. It was first observed during the Lick Observatory Supernova Search, and su ...
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Thermal Pulse
A thermal column (or thermal) is a rising mass of buoyant air, a convective current in the atmosphere, that transfers heat energy vertically. Thermals are created by the uneven heating of Earth's surface from solar radiation, and are an example of convection, specifically atmospheric convection. Thermals on Earth The Sun warms the ground, which in turn warms the air directly above. The warm air near the surface expands, becoming less dense than the surrounding air. The lighter air rises and cools due to its expansion in the lower pressure at higher altitudes. It stops rising when it has cooled to the same temperature, thus density, as the surrounding air. Associated with a thermal is a downward flow surrounding the thermal column. The downward-moving exterior is caused by colder air being displaced at the top of the thermal. The size and strength of thermals are influenced by the properties of the lower atmosphere (the ''troposphere''). When the air is cold, bubbles of warm ...
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V838 Mon
V838 Monocerotis (Nova Monocerotis 2002) is a cataclysmic binary star in the constellation Monoceros about 19,000 light years (6 kpc) from the Sun. The previously unremarked star was observed in early 2002 experiencing a major outburst, and was one of the largest known stars for a short period following the outburst. Originally believed to be a typical nova eruption, it was then identified as the first of a new class of eruptive variables known as luminous red novae. The reason for the outburst is still uncertain, but is thought to have been a merger of two stars within a triple system. The eruption occurred on one of two B3 main sequence stars in a close binary orbit. The erupting star appeared as an unusually cool supergiant and for a while engulfed its companion. By 2009 the temperature of the supergiant had increased (since 2005) to 3,270 K and its luminosity was 15,000 times solar (), but its radius had decreased to 380 times that of the Sun (), although the ejecta ...
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Main Sequence
In astronomy, the main sequence is a classification of stars which appear on plots of stellar color index, color versus absolute magnitude, brightness as a continuous and distinctive band. Stars on this band are known as main-sequence stars or dwarf stars, and positions of stars on and off the band are believed to indicate their physical properties, as well as their progress through several types of star life-cycles. These are the most numerous true stars in the universe and include the Sun. Color-magnitude plots are known as Hertzsprung–Russell diagrams after Ejnar Hertzsprung and Henry Norris Russell. After condensation and ignition of a star, it generates thermal energy in its dense stellar core, core region through nuclear fusion of hydrogen into helium. During this stage of the star's lifetime, it is located on the main sequence at a position determined primarily by its mass but also based on its chemical composition and age. The cores of main-sequence stars are in hydros ...
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Brown Dwarfs
Brown dwarfs are substellar objects that have more mass than the biggest gas giant planets, but less than the least massive main-sequence stars. Their mass is approximately 13 to 80 times that of Jupiter ()not big enough to sustain nuclear fusion of hydrogen into helium in their cores, but massive enough to emit some light and heat from the fusion of deuterium ( 2H). The most massive ones (> ) can fuse lithium ( 7Li). Astronomers classify self-luminous objects by spectral type, a distinction intimately tied to the surface temperature, and brown dwarfs occupy types M (2100–3500  K), L (1300–2100  K), T (600–1300  K), and Y (< 600  K). As brown dwarfs do not undergo stable hydrogen fusion, they cool down over time, progressively passing through later spectral types as they age. Their name comes not from the color of light ...
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T Dwarf
An object with the spectral type T (also called T dwarf or methane brown dwarf) is either a brown dwarf or young free-floating planetary-mass object. A directly imaged exoplanet with a young age can also be a T-dwarf. T dwarfs are colder than L dwarfs, but warmer than Y dwarfs. Prototype Gliese 229B The first T-dwarf discovered was Gliese 229B, which was discovered in 1995. This object had a temperature below 1000 K and showed methane (CH4), water vapor (H2O) and carbon monoxide (CO) in its spectrum. In the upper atmosphere CO is converted into CH4 and H2O, while the opposite is true for the hotter lower atmosphere. It also showed absorption due to caesium (Cs), but absorption features commonly found in M-dwarfs ( CaH, FeH, TiO, and VO) were missing. Ammonia (NH3) was included in the analysis of the spectrum. Sodium (Na) and potassium (K) are also detected in this T-dwarf. Later work found a dynamical mass of 70 ± 5 for Gliese 229B, which is much higher than the cooli ...
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Kelvin
The kelvin (symbol: K) is the base unit for temperature in the International System of Units (SI). The Kelvin scale is an absolute temperature scale that starts at the lowest possible temperature (absolute zero), taken to be 0 K. By definition, the Celsius scale (symbol °C) and the Kelvin scale have the exact same magnitude; that is, a rise of 1 K is equal to a rise of 1 °C and vice versa, and any temperature in degrees Celsius can be converted to kelvin by adding 273.15. The 19th century British scientist Lord Kelvin first developed and proposed the scale. It was often called the "absolute Celsius" scale in the early 20th century. The kelvin was formally added to the International System of Units in 1954, defining 273.16 K to be the triple point of water. The Celsius, Fahrenheit, and Rankine scales were redefined in terms of the Kelvin scale using this definition. The 2019 revision of the SI now defines the kelvin in terms of energy by setting the Bo ...
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Stellar Luminosity
Luminosity is an absolute measure of radiated electromagnetic energy per unit time, and is synonymous with the radiant power emitted by a light-emitting object. In astronomy, luminosity is the total amount of electromagnetic energy emitted per unit of time by a star, galaxy, or other astronomical objects. In SI units, luminosity is measured in joules per second, or watts. In astronomy, values for luminosity are often given in the terms of the luminosity of the Sun, ''L''⊙. Luminosity can also be given in terms of the astronomical magnitude system: the absolute bolometric magnitude (''M''bol) of an object is a logarithmic measure of its total energy emission rate, while absolute magnitude is a logarithmic measure of the luminosity within some specific wavelength range or filter band. In contrast, the term ''brightness'' in astronomy is generally used to refer to an object's apparent brightness: that is, how bright an object appears to an observer. Apparent brightness depen ...
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Centaurus A
Centaurus A (also known as NGC 5128 or Caldwell 77) is a galaxy in the constellation of Centaurus. It was discovered in 1826 by Scottish astronomer James Dunlop from his home in Parramatta, in New South Wales, Australia. There is considerable debate in the literature regarding the galaxy's fundamental properties such as its Hubble type (lenticular galaxy or a giant elliptical galaxy) and distance (11–13 million light-years). It is the closest radio galaxy to Earth, as well as the closest BL Lac object, so its active galactic nucleus has been extensively studied by professional astronomers. The galaxy is also the fifth-brightest in the sky, making it an ideal amateur astronomy target. It is only visible from the southern hemisphere and low northern latitudes. The center of the galaxy contains a supermassive black hole with a mass of 55 million solar masses, which ejects a relativistic jet that is responsible for emissions in the X-ray and radio wavelengths. By taking rad ...
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Stellar Engulfment
Stellar engulfment is the process in which a star at the end of its main sequence phase of its life expands into a red giant star and engulfs some or all of the planets or brown dwarfs orbiting around it. The majority of planetary systems (around 61%) including the Solar System will experience at least one stellar engulfment event on the onset of Helium fusion and near the first dredge-up. While engulfment of planets can leave behind traces, particularly with Lithium, it is quickly diluted. The same is the case for brown dwarfs. On around five billion years from now, the Sun will evolve out of the main sequence branch and into red giant. Its expansion will cause it to engulfed much of the inner planets of the Solar System including Mercury, Venus and possibly Earth. See Also * Common envelope * Contact binary * Interacting binary star * Neutron star merger A neutron star merger is the stellar collision of neutron stars. When two neutron stars fall into mutual orbit, they gr ...
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ZTF SLRN-2020
ZTF SLRN-2020 also called ZTF 20aazusyv is a subluminous red nova (SLRN) event that is the result of the Stellar engulfment, engulfment of an exoplanet into a star. It was the third planet engulfment observed, and the first one in an older age star. The engulfed planet was either a hot Jupiter or a hot Neptune with a mass of ≲10 . ZTF SLRN-2020 was discovered with the Zwicky Transient Facility as an optical outburst that lasted 6 months. The outburst was accompanied by a mid-infrared brightening discovered with NEOWISE that began 7 months before the optical outburst. No x-ray emission was detected. At first it was suspected the star was engulfing the planet and initially it was suspected that the star is an M giant from molecular absorption features. Later observations with James Webb Space Telescope, JWST did find the star more likely to be a 0.7 K-type main sequence star, K-type star that did not evolve away from the main-sequence. The researchers suggest that the planet was ...
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Pinwheel Galaxy
The Pinwheel Galaxy (also known as Messier 101, M101 or NGC 5457) is a face-on, counterclockwise intermediate spiral galaxy located from Earth in the constellation Ursa Major. It was discovered by Pierre Méchain in 1781 and was communicated that year to Charles Messier, who verified its position for inclusion in the '' Messier Catalogue'' as one of its final entries. On February 28, 2006, NASA and the European Space Agency released a very detailed image of the Pinwheel Galaxy, which was the largest and most detailed image of a galaxy by Hubble Space Telescope at the time. The image was composed of 51 individual exposures, plus some extra ground-based photos. Discovery Pierre Méchain, the discoverer of the galaxy, described it as a "nebula without star, very obscure and pretty large, 6' to 7' in diameter, between the left hand of Bootes and the tail of the great Bear. It is difficult to distinguish when one illuminates the ratingwires." William Herschel wrote in 1784 tha ...
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