English: Using
NASA'sSpitzer Space Telescope,
astronomers have found a likely solution to a centuries-old riddle of the night sky. Every 27 years, a bright star called Epsilon Aurigae fades over period of two years, then brightens. Although amateur and professional astronomers have observed the system extensively, the nature of both the bright
star and the companion object that periodically eclipses it have remained unclear. The companion is known to be surrounded by a dusty disk, as illustrated in this artist's concept. Data from Spitzer finally seems to have solved the riddle. Spitzer's
infra-red vision revealed the size of the dusty disk that swirls around the companion object. When astronomers plugged this data into a model of the system, they were able to rule out the theory that the main bright star is a
super-giant. Instead, it is a bright star with a lot less
mass. The new model also holds that the companion object is a so-called "B star" circled by a dusty disk.
The NASA website hosts a large number of images from the
Soviet/
Russian space agency, and other non-American space agencies. These are not necessarily in the public domain.
The
SOHO (ESA & NASA) joint project implies that all materials created by its probe are copyrighted and require permission for commercial non-educational use.
[2]
{{Information |Description={{en|1=Using
NASA'sSpitzer Space Telescope,
astronomers have found a likely solution to a centuries-old riddle of the night sky. Every 27 years, a bright
File usage
The following pages on the English Wikipedia use this file (pages on other projects are not listed):