BlO—Lancaster Farming, Saturday, April 7,1984
Star disappears
WASHINGTON - Every 27
years it happens. Some mysterious
objeH comes between the
supergient star Epsilon Aurigae
and Earth. You can’t see it the
invisible body leaves no trace of
itself but you know it’s out there
because the star’s brightness
slowly dims. '
The eclipse of Epsilon Aungae
a star 250 times bigger than the sun
and 50,000 times as bright is one
of the classicial mysteries of
modern astronomy. Among the
longest of the known eclipses,
lasting nearly two years and oc
curring only every 27.1, it has
bedeviled astronomers throughout
the 20th century.
Is the star’s dark companion a
swarm of meteorites, gas clouds, a
hot star in a cold shell, a planet
forming disk, or a black hole?
At varying times since the
eclipsing pattern was first
recognized in 1903, scientists have
speculated about all of these.
Today the most likely possibility
appears to be a developing
planetary system. Epsilon Aurigae
is again in eclipse, expected to
return to full brightness in May.
“I think chances are better than
ever this time that we will discover
what’s going on. We have all the
advantages in terms of new
technology. And it’s our last
chance to clear up this mystery
before the century ends. The next
eclipse won’s start until 2009,”
observes Dr. Robert E. Stencel of
the astrophysics division of the
National Aeronautics and Space
Administration. He is a coor
dinator of the worldwide echpse
momtormg campaign.
The long time between eclipses,
along with the invisibility of the
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every 27 years
object, makes Epsilon Aurigae
“difficult for mere mortals to
study. By the time just two eclipses
have gone by, your career as an
astronomer is about over,” Stencel
says.
What scientists know so far is
that this eclipse of a binary star
system is like no other. Usually
there are two stars that simply
move in front of each other.
This eclipsing body seems to be a
very cool, spinning, dense disk of
gas and dust that is extremely
large, taking almost two years to
move past the star. During the
more than a year that it is com
pletely across the star blocking
out about half its surface area it
cuts the star’s brightness by half.
The blinking or dimming was
first noticed by a German amateur
astronomer in 1821, although the
precise 27-year pattern was not
recognized until early this century.
The 1982-84 eclipse is the seventh
known.
Normally, the primary star in
the Epislon Aurigae system is
among the brightest in our galaxy,
a massive FL supergiant star thai
is visible from Earth even though
it is about 2,000 light years away.
One light year, the distance light
travels in a year, is 5.8 trillion
miles. Part of the constellation
Auriga, the star can be seen with
the unaided eye in the northern
sky, not far from Gemini and
Taurus. A careful observer can
detect its slow brightening this
winter and spring.
The price of being so big and
bright is burning out quicker. The
star probably has a life span of
only a few hundred million years,
(Turn to Pageßl2)
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Opposite of loss
365 days
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