Have you ever wondered how our sun and earth were born?Is there any other life in the universe?What was the origin and evolution of the universe?These questions are probably humanity's oldest and deepest explorations, and with the ALMA telescope, we have the key to answering them.
The ALMA Telescope is short for the Atacama Large Millimeter Submillimeter Wave Array, which is the world's largest radio telescope array, built and operated by 22 countries and regions including Europe, North America, East Asia, and Chile. Located in the Atacama Desert at an altitude of 5,000 meters in northern Chile, it is one of the driest places on Earth and one of the best places to observe the universe.
The ALMA telescope consists of 66 high-precision antennas that can observe at millimeter and submillimeter wavelengths, capable of penetrating the dust and gases of the universe, revealing mysteries that cannot be seen by the naked eye and optical telescopes. With a resolution of up to 4 milliarcseconds, the ALMA telescope has images ten times sharper than the Hubble Space Telescope, which is equivalent to being able to see the front of a coin from 100 kilometers away.
Since the beginning of scientific observation in 2011, the ALMA telescope has brought us many amazing discoveries, such as:
The oldest spiral galaxy has been observed, revealing its dynamic evolution.
The most distant galaxies have been observed, revealing the early history of the universe and the formation mechanism of galaxies.
Protoplanetary disks around young stars have been observed, revealing the process and conditions of planet formation.
Gas and dust around supermassive black holes have been observed, revealing the black hole's activity and impact.
Extrasolar planets and comets have been observed, revealing their structure and characteristics.
These discoveries not only give us a deeper understanding of the universe, but also give us more thought about our own origins and future. The ALMA telescope is showing us a more complete picture of the creation and growth of the universe, and perhaps one day, it will be able to help us find other life in the universe.
A dying star and its dancing partner
One star that has caught the special attention of scientists during the Alma telescope's exploration is W Aquilae, a variable star located in the constellation Aquila. It is an evolutionary star known as an S-type star, similar to a red giant, but it contains a large amount of metal oxides, such as silicon nitride, in its spectrum. The presence of this chemical component has led scientists to suspect that the star may have a hotter companion, affecting its chemistry.
W Aquilae is a star in the twilight of its life, which is dissipating its outer layers in a spectacular stellar wind, forming a huge disk of dust. The diameter of this dust disk is about 60 astronomical units, which is equivalent to the orbital radius of Neptune in the solar system. In this dust disk, scientists have found some strange molecular emissions, especially on one side of the star, suggesting that something unusual is happening there.
When we noticed a strange silicon nitride emission on one side, we realized that something unusual was happening. The study's lead author, Dr Tausa Danilovich, an Australian Research Council (ARC) Decra Fellow from Monash University's School of Physics and Astronomy, said.
To solve the mystery, scientists used the ALMA telescope to make detailed observations of W Aquilae, while also analyzing the star's orbit and structure using the Sphere instrument on the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope and historical data from the Hubble Space Telescope.
They discovered that Waquilae was not a lone performer, but rather danced with a longer-lived sun-like star. The presence of this companion star has an important effect on the stellar wind of W Aquilae, causing it to exhibit a ripple-like pattern similar to a **wave. This pattern is not only theoretically proven, but also clearly confirmed by ALMA data.
Scientists have also revealed the secrets of the pair's orbits, discovering that the orbits of these two stars are very elliptical and take about a thousand years to complete a fascinating cycle. This is the first time that the orbital period of the waquilae system has been determined, and it was only speculated that it could last for centuries.
This research not only gives us a deeper understanding of Wakilae, but also shows us the power of the ALMA telescope, which is able to detect faint chemical signals around stars, revealing the dynamic evolution of stars. This technique can also be used to detect the companions of other mysterious dying stars obscured by cosmic dust, giving us more insight into the binary or three-star systems in the universe.
Other binary or three-star systems in the universe
The Waquilae system is not the only binary or three-star system in the universe, in fact, they are very common. It is estimated that nearly half of all solar-type stars exist as binary or three-star stars, and for more massive stars, the proportion may be even higher. The existence of binary or three-star systems has an important impact on the evolution and diversity of the universe.
Binary or three-star systems can produce some special celestial phenomena, such as eclipse stars, novae, supernovae, gravitational lensing, etc., which can provide us with information and knowledge of the universe.
Binary or three-star systems can affect the lifetime and evolution of stars, such as changing the structure and state of stars through tidal processes, mass transfer, merger, etc., and even produce some rare star types, such as blue meteors, blue post-giant stars, dwarf white dwarfs, etc.
Binary or three-star systems can affect the formation and stability of planets, such as through gravitational disturbances, the distribution of dust disks, the intensity of radiation and other factors, affecting the orbit and environment of planets, and even producing some peculiar planet types, such as ringing binary planets, hot Jupiters, terrestrial planets, etc.
The closest neighbor of the solar system, Proxima, is a red dwarf star that forms a three-star system with two other stars, Centauri A and Centauri B. Around Proxima, there is a planet known as Proxima B, which is the closest known terrestrial planet to Earth, only 42 light years, there is the possibility of liquid water and life.
A bright star in the constellation Aquila, Aquila, is an eclipse variable star that consists of two stars, a blue-white main-sequence star and a yellow giant. The orbits of these two stars are very close to each other, only 01 astronomical unit, which corresponds to a quarter of the distance between the Sun and Mercury. As a result of such orbits, two stars will occlude each other, causing their brightness to change periodically, creating a phenomenon called eclipse.
Another bright star in the constellation Aquila, Aquila, is a supernova candidate, and it is made up of three stars, the largest of which is a blue supergiant star with 120 times the mass and 500,000 times brighter than the Sun. The star is losing its mass at an extremely rapid rate, forming a massive gas shell with a diameter of about 4,000 astronomical units, which is equivalent to 130 times the orbital radius of Neptune in the solar system. The star has the potential to explode into a supernova or even a rarer ultra-high-energy supernova in the next few million years, and its explosion can have a huge impact on the surrounding stars and planets.
These binary or three-star systems allow us to see the diversity and wonder of the universe, and also let us know more about the evolution and fate of stars. The study of the ALMA telescope has revealed the secrets of these cosmic dancers for us, and perhaps one day, we will be able to witness their dance.