There’s a lot to celebrate in space this week, like colorful clusters that are factories for new stars, all decked out for the holidays. Also in the great beyond, in the constellation Aquarius, lies a binary star called R Aquarii. Known as a variable star system, the light from R Aquarii fluctuates, as seen from Earth. This could mean another star passing in front of the pair dims the light from them, or that the stars themselves are slightly unstable.
As we can see from our collected space photos, R Aquarii’s two stars orbit each other in what looks like a beautiful stellar dance. But while interaction may be dazzling, there’s something more dramatic happening. One of the stars is a red giant and the other a white dwarf, with the latter feeding off the former as they move around. The results are turbulent, albeit colorful trails of gas and dust around the two. Even from a huge distance, the pair can be identified by their bright streams of dust.
There’s a lot of history with such star systems; the first relevant observation of a variable star that contemporary astronomers can refer back to was in the 17th century. That challenged the conception, dating back to Aristotle, of stars as fixed and rigid. Like we said, lots of drama in such astral bodies.
Space has been a mystery for millennia and your discoveries of the cosmos can start right here, right now. Set off for WIRED’s full collection of space photos, here.
