This is an amazing time of discovery, to be certain -- almost daily, now we read of new insights -- new discoveries, in many cases millions of light years off into the night skies. Truly. . . wonderful! Here's the latest, from NASA's Hubble team (at over three decades, "on mission", now):
. . .In 1936, astronomers saw a puzzling event in the constellation Orion: the young star FU Orionis (FU Ori) became a hundred times brighter in a matter of months. At its peak, FU Ori was intrinsically 100 times brighter than our Sun. Unlike an exploding star though, it has declined in luminosity only languidly since then.
Now, a team of astronomers has wielded NASA's Hubble Space Telescope's ultraviolet capabilities to learn more about the interaction between FU Ori's stellar surface and the accretion disk that has been dumping gas onto the growing star for nearly 90 years. They find that the inner disk touching the star is extraordinarily hot — which challenges conventional wisdom. . . .
"We were hoping to validate the hottest part of the accretion disk model, to determine its maximum temperature, by measuring closer to the inner edge of the accretion disk than ever before," said Lynne Hillenbrand of Caltech in Pasadena, California, and a co-author of the paper. "I think there was some hope that we would see something extra, like the interface between the star and its disk, but we were certainly not expecting it. The fact we saw so much extra — it was much brighter in the ultraviolet than we predicted — that was the big surprise. . . ."
This is -- as they say. . . a very bright-burning youngster, indeed -- and we all have known some, in our time. [Consider Travis "Heisman" Hunter, above in the masthead -- in action again tomorrow afternoon, against the Kansas Jayhawks.] Smile -- and consider. . . from 12 years ago, to roughly eight years ago -- now. . . out of Music City. Wishing you and the kiddos all the best, at Thanksgiving and always -- grinning. Onward.
नमस्ते
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