Some stars in the Universe are like those overly confident kids at school; they just have to shine brighter than everyone else. They’re the ones with fancy designer clothes, the latest gadgets, and the perfect hair. They’re the ones who always have to be the center of attention.
And just like those kids, some stars in the Universe are just plain show-offs! They’re the ones that are so bright they can be seen from light-years away. They’re the ones that make all the other stars feel like they’re not good enough. They’re the ones that make you squint and shield your eyes when you look at them.
The Gaia17bpp star puzzled scientists
Gaia17bpp is the name of one of those stars that shine brighter than others. But obviously, astronomers wanted to understand why. According to CNN, astronomers might have finally solved the mystery. Gaia17bpp suddenly brightened over a 2.5-year period, which was unexpected.
The researchers discovered that the star, which is located in the Milky Way, has a companion that orbits it every 1,000 years and that the companion is surrounded by a disk of dusty material. As the companion passed in front of the star, it blocked some of the light, causing the star’s brightness to dim by 67 times. The companion, which is thought to be a small dead star or white dwarf, is so distant from the star that another eclipse is not expected for centuries.
Anastasios Tzanidakis, who is a doctoral student at the University of Washington, stated:
This was a serendipitous discovery,
If we had been a few years off, we would’ve missed it. It also indicates that these types of binaries might be much more common. If so, we need to come up with theories about how this type of pairing even arose. It’s definitely an oddity, but it might be much more common than anyone has appreciated.
The Universe is full of stars; some are show-offs and others are happy to shine in their own way. Each one of them has its own unique characteristics and contributes to the beauty of the cosmos.
