After crunching a mountain of astronomy data, Space Physics major Clarissa Pavao (’23) submitted her preliminary analysis. Her mentor’s response was swift and in all caps. “There’s an orbit!” he wrote. A STELLAR DISCOVERY SPACE PHYSICS STUDENT FOLLOWS HER RESEARCH TO
That was when Pavao, an undergraduate student at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University’s Prescott, Arizona, campus, realized she was about to become a part of something big — a paper in the peer-reviewed journal Nature that describes a rare binary star system with uncommon features. The paper was published Feb. 1, 2023, and was co-authored with Dr. Noel D. Richardson, assistant professor of Physics and Astronomy and Jan J. Eldridge from the University of Auckland. It describes a twin-star system that is luminous with X-rays and high in mass. Featuring a weirdly circular orbit — an oddity among binaries — the twin system seems to have formed when an exploding star or supernova fizzled out without the usual bang, similar to a dud firecracker.
The binary’s round orbit was a key clue that helped the Embry-Riddle researchers identify the second star in the binary system as a depleted or “ultra-stripped” supernova. The binary system’s name sounds like a license plate: CPD-29 2176. Researchers estimate that there are probably only about 10 such star systems in the galaxy at present. By studying it, they are unraveling new clues to our earliest beginnings as stardust.
Explore more on the following pages
13 | Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University
Made with FlippingBook - Online magazine maker