The Crying Star

Celestial objects come in many shapes and sizes. They can be perfect spheres or the most random shapes. But celestial objects are very broad. Let's look more closely at one of the most important celestial objects: stars. Stars man that there is a solar system around it. Some star systems are very unique. For example, one solar system has a star system that is similar to the planet Tatooine where a smaller star is orbiting around another star (I will talk about this in another article). However, there are still many common things that are present in stars. One thing is the shape. Most stars are almost perfect spheres, with some being a little bit more elliptical. But scientists have discovered a star that looks like a teardrop.

Artists Rendition of HD265435

No, the star isn’t sad and the star isn’t crying. The star system is named HD265435 (I know it’s a mouthful, let's just call it the crying star to simplify reading it) and one of the three only known binary star systems in the universe. Binary star systems are star systems in which two stars orbit around a common barycenter or point. Located around 1,500 light-years from the sun, the crying star system is the closest binary star system to the Earth. 

Scientists have predicted that the star system will eventually end up being a Type la supernova. Type la supernovae occur when a white dwarf shares an orbit with any type of younger star that still has fuel left to burn. Even though white dwarfs are small, they are incredibly massive, which eventually leads to the white dwarf in the star system to “eat up” the fuel from the other planet. That younger star starts to turn into an ellipse, and eventually into a “teardrop” shape. Eventually, the older white dwarf starts to grow larger and larger, and will finally become large rough for nuclear reactions to reignite in its core, causing both the stars to become brighter and be surrounded with gas and space dust.

Type la Supernova Remnant
Discovered by the HST

Finding Type la supernovae is incredibly tricky. First of all, finding the white dwarf star is very hard because white dwarfs are often extremely dim and small (they are about the size of Earth). Secondly, finding the younger star in Type la supernovae is also very hard to find, but they are often brighter than the dwarf star and have a unique shape. They can also be found by looking for a star almost “tugging” at another star or two pulsing light signatures.

The team of scientists also found some information about the crying star system itself. The “teardrop” star was very close to becoming a white dwarf. Additionally, the stars would complete an orbital period every 90 minutes. Finally, they concluded that there is another type la supernova 70 million light-years away. Though these space systems are rare, they are a marvel to look at. Just don’t cry when the crying star system disappears.

Sources:

“Binary Star.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 14 July 2021, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Binary_star. 

Specktor, Brandon. “Rare 'Teardrop' Star and Its Invisible Partner Are Doomed to Explode in a Massive Supernova.” Space.com, Space, 14 July 2021, www.space.com/rare-teardrop-star-supernova-candidate. 

“Sun's Almost Perfectly Round Shape Baffles Scientists.” ScienceDaily, ScienceDaily, 16 Aug. 2012, www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/08/120816150801.htm. 

“Type Ia Supernova.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 6 July 2021, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Type_Ia_supernova.