All Images
Press Release 08-104
Newly Born Twin Stars Are Far From Identical
NSF-funded basic research may cause astronomers to re-examine the masses and ages of young stars and star formation theories
Back to article | Note about images
 |
Twin stars observed in the Orion Nebula, a stellar nursery 1,500 light years from Earth. At this distance the twin stars appear as a single point of light. The observations were made with the NSF-supported SMARTS telescopes at the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory in Chile, and with access provided by NSF to the Hobby-Eberly Telescope at the MacDonald Observatory in Texas.
Credit: NASA-JPL/HST and David James (Vanderbilt) |
Download the high-resolution JPG version of the image. (523 KB)
|
Use your mouse to right-click (or Ctrl-click on a Mac) the link above and choose the option that will save the file or target to your computer.
|
 |
 View video
Keivan Stassun, associate professor of astronomy at Vanderbilt University, describes a surprising discovery--two very young twin stars in the Orion Nebula that have different temperatures, brightnesses and, probably, diameters. The finding could help scientists to develop a better understanding of how twin stars are born.
Credit: National Science Foundation / Vanderbilt University
|
|
