Media Release

For Immediate Release

February 7, 2008

SMU Astronomers Make Some Stellar Discoveries

The mysterious star was discovered at the Abbey-Ridge Observatory, a facility located in the community of Stillwater Lake, near Tantallon, Nova Scotia. The Observatory was designed, constructed, and is operated by Dave Lane, who is an astronomer at SMU.

A team of astronomers at Saint Mary’s University, led by Dr. David Turner, has identified the mysterious star responsible for illuminating a giant emission nebula in a nearby region of our Milky Way Galaxy in the constellation of Cepheus, an object that had previously eluded detection by scientists for over a half-century.

The star is about 100,000 times more luminous than our Sun, with a correspondingly scorching surface temperature of nearly 45,000 degrees Celsius.

While our own Sun is orbited by many smaller planets, the SMU team has discovered that the Cepheus star is orbited by yet another star every 5 days, in comparison with a lengthy 365 days that it takes Earth to orbit the Sun.

“Such hot stars are rare in our Galactic neighborhood, but more importantly, the present discovery allows astronomers to investigate the star’s influence on the stellar nursery where it was found, which may help us understand the broader environmental contexts in which our own Sun was born.” says Dr. Turner, a professor of astronomy and director of the Burke-Gaffney Observatory.

He adds, “It is surprising that the star was not noticed earlier, since its true nature was simply overlooked in previous surveys.”

The newly-identified star is a mere infant by cosmological time scales, with an inferred age of only a few million years according to computational models by other SMU researchers (Joel Tanner and Dr. David Guenther, Mike Casey). Our Sun, by comparison, clocks in at 4.5 billion years according to ages derived from the study of meteorites.

Ironically, although the star is far, far younger than the Sun, it will end its childhood relatively soon, terminating its brief existence in a cataclysmic supernova explosion in another few million years. “There is, however, no need for a pre-apocalyptic gala since the explosion will take place at a very distant 30 quadrillion (3 x 10^16) kilometers away, so humanity will be spared. I should also remind other students that any attempt to seek a homework extension will be in vain, unfortunately,” are the reassuring words from Daniel Majaess, who along with Dave Lane and Kathleen Moncrieff, is a member of the research team.

The Cepheus star now takes its place alongside another celebrated star, designated Theta 1 Orionis C, the star mainly responsible for illuminating the famous Orion Nebula, which can be observed with the unaided eye as a fuzzy-like object (not star-like) in the sword of the hunter depicted as the constellation of Orion. “The Orion Nebula is a spectacular object to see through the University’s campus telescope at the Burke-Gaffney Observatory, which is available for public use bimonthly during the winter,” says Lane.

The results will appear in a forthcoming issue of the Journal of the American Association of Variable Star Observers, and will also highlight results regarding the nature of several other variable stars investigated by the team. One of the objects, coincidentally, is a star that is remarkably similar to our own Sun in temperature, size, and composition. Yet it appears to be emitting copious amounts of X-rays, which may indicate that it is orbiting a companion at an end state of stellar evolution, “either a white dwarf, neutron star, or possibly an exotic black-hole,” says Dr. Turner.

The object was co-investigated with David Boyd of the British Astronomical Association Variable Stars Section and a number of other astronomers around the globe.

The discoveries were made locally using the Abbey-Ridge Observatory, a facility ideally perched on a granite outcrop in the community of Stillwater Lake, near Tantallon, Nova Scotia. The Observatory was designed, constructed, and is operated by Dave Lane, a local astronomer who can be heard discussing astronomical events on CBC Radio’s Maritime Noon, and who is the recent recipient of the Science Champion Award from the Discovery Centre.

“What is perhaps most rewarding is to observe astronomical phenomena and conduct exciting research from right here in Nova Scotia. The success of the project has generated inquiries from scientists abroad who would like to use the local observatory to acquire data for their own celestial research, which inherently raises the profile and reputation of our community and region," says Majaess.

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For More Information:

Paul Fitzgerald
Public Affairs Officer
Saint Mary's University, Public Affairs
(902) 420.5514
E-mail: paul.fitzgerald@smu.ca
www.smu.ca