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We know other stars have planets. We know that certain stars have circumstellar disks. We know that before there are planets, there must be a protoplanetary disk; we also know that these two states must be connected through a evolutionary path which includes planet formation.
What if–if we were just so lucky–we found a protoplanetary system that had a disk, that was aligned so perfectly, and that was bright enough, and …. Continue reading
Miszalski et al. show that the well-known planetary nebula Abell 70 has a white dwarf companion at its center with a messy past. Continue reading
Corroboration and confirmation is the name of this game. Making the same measurement twice — using a different technique — is a powerful way not only to confirm the initial result, but also the method used. This paper confirms a recent detection of a binary system using light-travel time techniques. Continue reading
How do stars vary on a hundred year time scale? The DASCH (Digital Access to a Sky Century @ Harvard) Team has been looking back at data taken over the last century in order to answer this question. This paper reports the most recent DASCH discovery, which concerns the star KU Cyg. This is an eclipsing binary system in which a more massive F star is gaining mass from a red giant. The authors noticed a 0.5 magnitude drop in the brightness of the star around 1900 that lasts for five years. Continue reading
These authors use the surface of the Moon to distinguish between binary star systems separated by just thousandths of an arcsecond – far smaller than can be resolved by traditional imaging. Continue reading
Do close-in planets cause their host stars to become more magnetically active? Canto Martins et al. compare stars with and without planets to address this question. Continue reading
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