The possibility that huge waves generated by tidal action repeatedly act on one of the two stars that make up the binary system has been raised through the latest research. This is the first time that the effects of tidal waves observed in a so-called Heartbeat Star have been confirmed on a star.
A research team at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA) has recently announced that it has captured a destructive phenomenon in which a huge tidal wave rushes into one of the two stars that make up the binary system.
The binary star system in which tidal waves that are so massive that it shatters the Earth hits one star is ‘MACHO 80.7443.1718’ near the Large Magellanic Cloud, about 169,000 light-years away from Earth to be exact.
An artist’s imagination of ‘MACHO 80.7443.1718’ by heartbeat. The tidal waves exerted on the primary star by conjunction were estimated to affect 20% of the primary star’s radius. <사진=Melissa Weiss·CfA 공식 홈페이지>
The mass of the star that makes up the binary system is estimated to be approximately 35 times that of the Sun. The companion star’s mass is much smaller than that. The two stars are typical heartbeat stars, orbiting each other in nearly elliptical orbits. The name was given because the brightness periodically changes like a heartbeat when stars pass close to each other at the point where each orbit meets.
One thing to note in ‘MACHO 80.7443.1718’ is the tremendous tidal force. An official from the research team said, “Whenever the orbiting star and companion come close to each other, tidal action occurs like the Earth and the moon due to each other’s gravity.” It seems,” he said.
“This is a common phenomenon for heartbeat stars, but in the case of ‘MACHO 80.7443.1718’, the brightness fluctuation reached 200 times the predicted value.” It’s enough energy to destroy it over and over again.”
Trajectories of heartbeat stars. When two celestial bodies come close along interlocking orbits, tidal force causes periodic changes in brightness. <사진= NASA Space News 유튜브 공식 채널 영상 'The Star with the Biggest Waves Ever: How a Heartbeat Star Creates Waves as High as Three Suns' 캡처>
The center gave meaning to the fact that these highly fluctuating heart rate stars were so far unknown. An official from the research team predicted, “The tidal wave generated by the gravitational interaction of ‘MACHO 80.7443.1718’ will reach about 4.3 million km, which is 20% of the radius of the main star.”
The research team plans to continue observation activities to find more stars that emit light by tidal waves. Heartbeat stars are actively observed through NASA’s Kepler telescope, and about 1,000 have been identified so far. Twenty of these generate extreme tidal waves, such as ‘MACHO 80.7443.1718’.
Reporter Jeong Ian anglee@sputnik.kr
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