To B[e] or not to B[e]


	To B[e] or not to B[e]

JohnWaterman

8-6-2009 1:41 PM

249 views

JohnWaterman says:

Lots more interesting stuff at the clipped article.

1 Comment |

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8-7-2009 10:20 AM

mcsmithblack

Dear Ol' Sol may be a wimp, but he's our wimp.
Especially liked comments on secondary site, "my recent post about this" concerning possible discovery of life on earth.
Thanks

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<div style="margin: 12px 0px; font-family: arial; color: #333333; background: #ffffff; border: solid 4px #e5e5e5; width: 100%; clear: left;"><div class="CM_CTB_Content_Wrap" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;background-color: #ffffff;"><div style="border-bottom: solid 1px #dcdcdc; white-space: nowrap; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: #eeeeee ;background-image: url(http://www.clipmarks.com/images/source-bg.gif); background-repeat: repeat-x; height: 24px; line-height: 24px; vertical-align: middle; padding-bottom: 4px; color: #666666; font-size: 10px;" ><a href="http://clipmarks.com/clip-to-blog/" title="see clips that are hot right now"><img src="http://content.clipmarks.com/blog_embed/f5fabf14-ae07-48e9-ae6a-ce7f34424251/AD209772-BF86-41CD-8E3E-5B42C19B4DD3/" alt="" width="19" height="19" border="0" style="vertical-align: middle; margin: 0px 4px; display: inline; border: none; float:none;" /></a>clipped from <a title="http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2009/08/05/to-be-or-not-to-be/" href="http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2009/08/05/to-be-or-not-to-be/" style="font-size: 11px;">blogs.discovermagazine.com</a></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2009/08/05/to-be-or-not-to-be/"><P>Compared to some stars, our Sun is something of a wimp. It just sits there all by itself, shining all the time, hardly changing in temperature, brightness, or mass. </p> <P>But not all stars are so boring. I present to you <A target="_blank" href="http://www.eso.org/public/outreach/press-rel/pr-2009/pr-28-09.html">this amazing image</A> of the star HD 87643:</p> <P></P><CENTER>
<TABLE><TBODY><TR><TD align="center"><A target="_blank" href="http://www.eso.org/gallery/d/107639-4/phot-28a-09-fullres.jpg"><IMG src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2655/3792782848_dd91b4081e_o.jpg" /></A></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE><P></P></CENTER><BR clear="all" />
<P>[Click to embiggen.]</p> <P>HD 87643 is the star near the middle of the picture, surrounded by the weird glowing material.</P></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2009/08/05/to-be-or-not-to-be/">HD 87643 is what’s called a B[e] giant star. The <STRONG>B</STRONG> means it’s a hot star, and since it’s  a giant (or possibly even a supergiant) it will one day end its life in a titanic supernova explosion. The <STRONG>[e]</STRONG> means its spectrum has emission lines. Usually, when you take the spectrum of a star you see absorption lines, dips in the spectrum indicating the presence of various atoms or molecules (see <A target="_blank" href="http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2009/08/04/lcross-detects-life-on-earth/">my recent post about this</A> for some details). You only see emission lines — <EM>bright</EM> features in the spectrum — if the star is surrounded by gas that is being lit up by the star making it glow just like a neon sign</blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2009/08/05/to-be-or-not-to-be/">very rare</blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2009/08/05/to-be-or-not-to-be/"><div align="center"><img src="http://content7.clipmarks.com/blog_cache/blogs.discovermagazine.com/img/C1988F60-D0DF-49B1-A405-BFB4F4D0322D" alt="Zoomed VLT image of HD87643" /></div></blockquote></div><div style="margin: 0px 6px 6px 4px;"><table style="font-size: 11px;border-spacing: 0px;padding: 0px;" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%"><tr><td style="background:transparent;border-width:0px;padding:0px;">&nbsp;</td><td align="right" style="background:transparent;border-width:0px;padding:0px;width:107px" width="107"><a href="http://clipmarks.com/share/AD209772-BF86-41CD-8E3E-5B42C19B4DD3/blog/" title="blog or email this clip"><img src="http://content8.clipmarks.com/images/c2b-foot.png" border="0" alt="blog it" width="107" height="17" style="border-width:0px;padding:0px;margin:0px;" /></a></td></tr></table></div></div>

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