Astronomers observed Gaia17bpp, a distant star, dimming over 4,500 times from 2012 to 2019. However, in 2019, this star unexpectedly brightened in a mysterious way, leaving researchers puzzled.
A distant world named Gaia17bpp has re-emerged before Earth’s eyes after 7 years of eclipse, revealing an extremely rare binary star system in the universe.
To solve this mystery, a research team led by astronomer Anastasios Tzanidakis from the University of Washington (USA) combined observations from the Gaia satellite of the European Space Agency (ESA) with data from other missions in the U.S., discovering the existence of a “dead world” near the mysterious star.
Graphic depiction of the strange binary star system just identified – (Image: Anastasios Tzanidakis).
This is a white dwarf star accompanied by a massive and expansive disk of material in the form of dust. It accidentally passed through the space between Earth and the star Gaia17bpp, creating a rare “eclipse” view when observed from Earth.
White dwarfs are essentially the “zombies” of stars like the Sun, having collapsed after exhausting their energy.
To clarify, the research team utilized DASCH, a digital catalog with 100 years of astronomical observations stored by Harvard University (USA), confirming that Gaia17bpp has never dimmed in a similar manner before.
Measurements indicate that this binary star system is located at an extremely vast distance from each other and takes up to 1,000 years to orbit one another, making the observation of the 7-year “eclipse” a golden opportunity for astronomers, which the authors describe as a “once-in-a-lifetime event.”
The characteristics displayed by this star pair also suggest that it is an extremely rare binary star system in the universe.
This research has just been published at the 241st meeting of the American Astronomical Society.
