Vampire Star:
Researchers have made a groundbreaking discovery of a vampire star in the star cluster M67 located in the constellation Cancer, that has been rejuvenating its youth by sucking up material from a companion.
- Vampire Stars are known to astronomers as blue straggler stars (BSS) and are identified easily in star clusters.
- These stars, found in clusters, appear younger than their neighbours, defying simple models of stellar evolution.
- The mystery behind their youthful appearance has long puzzled astronomers, with theories suggesting they might be consuming material from companion stars.
- They are also known as Symbiotic Binaries because they are normally in pairs.
- The Vampire star will start as the smaller star but, nearing the end of the sucking process will inevitably be the larger of the two.
- The sucking star, when it has consumed a large amount from its victim, will become a blue star, also known as a blue straggler.
Highlights of the research:
- The scientists studied the surface composition of the vampire star in M67, called WOCS 9005, an open cluster in the constellation Cancer.
- They discovered that WOCS 9005’s atmosphere is unusually rich in heavy elements such as barium, yttrium, and lanthanum.
- These elements are typically associated with much older, more massive stars in their final stages of life.
- This star is expected to show chemistry very similar to the Sun, but they found that its atmosphere is rich in heavy elements.
- This chemical anomaly pointed to a fascinating possibility: WOCS 9005 had been “polluted” by material from a companion star.
- Using AstroSat’s Ultraviolet Imaging Telescope (UVIT), they detected significant ultraviolet emissions from WOCS 9005.
- The blue straggler star must have consumed most of this barium-rich material due to its gravitational pull, and is now presenting itself as a rejuvenated star.
