1. Variable stars
2. Literature in Spanish language
3. Formula 1

A star field dominated by yellow, orange, and red stars. Two bright white stars pave the way to the immense dark nebula. This seems to form black voids between the stars, but they are not voids; they are clouds with vast volumes of gas and dust that block the starlight within and behind them. 3/3

You are watching here just a tiny portion of the Milky Way’s disk. 2/3

A star field dominated by yellow, orange, and red stars. Two bright white stars pave the way to the immense dark nebula. This seems to form black voids between the stars, but they are not voids; they are clouds with vast volumes of gas and dust that block the starlight within and behind them. 3/3

You are watching here just a tiny portion of the Milky Way’s disk.2/3

The image at the beginning belongs to: NASA/CXC/M.Weis. The GIF that follows was taken from the press release announcing the publication of this paper: tinyurl.com/GOTO0650PR. 13/13

This also demonstrates that science is not “a one-man show” (who in turn might be expected to be a sort of genius), but rather a worldwide collaboration of several people with different skills. 12/13

One of the most remarkable aspects of this study is the fact that it is a very good example of collaboration between amateur astronomers, like myself, and professional astronomers. 11/13

The star is question is known as GOTO065054+593624, or GOTO0650 for short. The paper, led by Dr. Thomas Killestein, GOTO065054+593624: An 8.5 mag amplitude dwarf nova identified in real time via Kilonova Seekers, can be found in the following link: tinyurl.com/GOTO0650. 10/13

Well, it turns out that the paper in which I participated studies a dwarf nova, which was actually seen in action by several citizen scientists (!), that also happens to be a period bouncer. 9/13

Some systems, after they reach their lowest angular momentum –i.e., when their orbital period is around 78 minutes– bounce back and start to slowly regain angular momentum. These systems are known as “period bouncers”. 8/13

In the case of these types of stars, the explosion occurs when the system loses angular momentum, resulting in an increase in its accretion rate, which in turn causes their temperature and viscosity to rise. 7/13

Dwarf novae feature recurring outbursts. By “outburst” here, the reader should understand that we astronomers, amateur and professional, refer to “explosions”. 6/13

the main reason for this is that I had the opportunity to collaborate on a paper that studies a very peculiar dwarf nova star, which was recently published in the prestigious scientific journal Astronomy & Astrophysics. 5/13

The first examples of explosions in these systems that come to my mind right now are the very famous Type 1a supernovae, classical novae, and dwarf novae. In this thread, I am going to write about the latter. 4/13

However, the stolen material does not go directly to the white dwarf; first, it is gathered around it, forming an accretion disk that swirls around the white dwarf. It is precisely the existence of an accretion disk that makes these systems so interesting, as it tends to cause them to explode. 3/13

Normally, these binaries are comprised of a white dwarf star and its companion, which can be a main-sequence star, a red giant, or, sometimes, a brown dwarf. The thing is that in these systems, the white dwarf literally steals mass from its companion. 2/13