"Two Stars Ready To Murge"

[rickstine]

MINNEAPOLIS, MN – Two dense stars whipping around each other at breakneck speed may be the strongest known source of Einstein's space-trembling gravity waves.<br /><br />The double star – called RX J0806 – was discovered in 1994 in X-rays. Later shown to be blinking on and off every 5.4 minutes, the two-star setup is believed to be a pair of white dwarfs – the dense ashes of burnt-out stars – rotating around each other. <br /><br />The implied separation is just 50,000 miles – a mere one-fifth the distance between the Earth and the Moon, making this the closest stellar pair ever observed. The tangled duo should be booming out gravity waves – undulations in the fabric of space and time predicted by Einstein's theory of general relativity.<br /><br />"Those waves have still not been detected directly, but there is indirect evidence," said Tod Strohmayer, who presented the results here last week at a meeting of the American Astronomical Society meeting.<br /><br />Strohmayer, of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, presented data from the Chandra X-ray Observatory that shows the time between the X-ray blips is decreasing by 1.2 milliseconds every year. The implication is that the dwarfs are orbiting faster and faster, as they gradually fall into each other at a rate of one inch per hour.<br /><br />This "spin-up" is consistent with rotational energy being lost to gravity waves. The amount of energy radiated in gravity waves in all directions could be 100 times the energy our Sun puts out in light, according to Strohmayer. <br /><br />The study will be detailed in the Astrophysical Journal.<br /><br />Gravitational ticking<br /><br />This is not the first time that two objects have been seen spinning faster over time. The radio pulses from the Hulse-Taylor pulsar were found to be getting closer together due to gravity wave emission between the pulsar and an orbiting neutron star companion. <br /><br />Also presented at this meeting, Ingrid Stairs of the University of British Columbia and

 

[rickstine]

It's to bad I won't be able to see it

 

[silylene old]

<font color="yellow">The stars have 'the urge to murge". </font><br /><br />I suppose that is better than the 'erge' to 'merge' ! <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature" align="center"><em><font color="#0000ff">- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -</font></em> </div><div class="Discussion_UserSignature" align="center"><font color="#0000ff"><em>I really, really, really miss the "first unread post" function.</em></font> </div> </div>

 

[silylene old]

Agreed. En-dyne-cm-ie is just too many syllables.<br /><br /><img src="/images/icons/wink.gif" /> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature" align="center"><em><font color="#0000ff">- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -</font></em> </div><div class="Discussion_UserSignature" align="center"><font color="#0000ff"><em>I really, really, really miss the "first unread post" function.</em></font> </div> </div>