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Author: Deborah Baudoin Email: alluvus@primenet.com Date: 1997/08/07 Forums: alt.fan.mira-furlan Message-ID: <5sdhio$g4m@nntp02.primenet.com> Oh, this was too good to leave alone. Please read on for the MST3K version. Debbie necKro <neckro@visi.com> wrote: : I figured everyone here would get a kick out of this. :) : HUBBLE SEPARATES STARS IN THE MIRA BINARY SYSTEM Translation: Due to the delay in securing a fifth season, STARS Mira and Bruce, via their characters Delenn and John, are separated. John is trapped in a dark room on Earth (we think) and Delenn is somewhere in neutral space...all alone in the dark. : Although the giant star Mira has been known for about 400 years, : astronomers have had to wait for NASA's Hubble Space Telescope to provide : the first ultraviolet images of the extended atmosphere of the cool red : giant star and its nearby hot companion. Translation: Giant star Mira: Delenn; Cool red giant star: G'Kar; nearby hot companion: John Sheridan : By giving astronomers a clear view of the individual members of this : system, Hubble has provided valuable insights into other types of double : star systems where the stars are so close they interact with one another. Translation: Double star systems: John and Delenn, Ivanova and Marcus; Londo and G'Kar?? : The separation between Mira and its companion is about 70 times more than : that between Earth and the Sun, (equal to an angular size of only 0.6 : arcseconds -- the apparent diameter of a dime at four miles away) even : smaller than the typically fuzzy ground-based telescopic image of a single : star as smeared out by Earth's turbulent atmosphere. See above notes regarding B5's fifth season. : Using the European Space Agency's Faint Object Camera aboard Hubble, : Margarita Karovska and John Raymond of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for : Astrophysics, Cambridge, MA; Warren Hack of the Space Telescope Science : Institute, Baltimore, MD; and Edward Guinan of Villanova University, : Villanova, PA, obtained both ultraviolet and visible light images and : spectra of the two separate stars in the Mira system. The results appear : in the June 20 Astrophysical Journal Letters. Which will be scanned and uploaded to the John and Delenn site asap. <:G> : In ultraviolet light, Hubble has resolved a small hook-like appendage : extending from Mira in the direction of the companion, which might be : material from Mira being gravitationally drawn toward the smaller star. : Alternately, it could be material in Mira's upper atmosphere being heated : due to the companion's presence. Oh, my. Do I really want to go there?? Naah. We'll leave that one to our imaginations. : Hubble's visible-light images show that Mira has an odd, asymmetrical : shape resembling a football. FIX YOUR TELEVISION SET! Football, indeed! : This may be tied to dramatic changes : occurring during its expansion-contraction cycles, or to the presence of : unresolved spots on its surface. Commander, what are these...odd cramps? : Hubble allows astronomers to measure the : star's size at about 60 milliarcseconds, corresponding to a diameter some : 700 times larger than our Sun. If Mira were at the center of our solar : system, She's not?? : Mira (officially called Omicron Ceti in the constellation Cetus) That's just the Croatian pronunciation..... : is the : prototype for an entire class of stars known as "Mira-type variables." Soon, all stars will be like Mira!! Ohhhmmmmm.... : Although once like our Sun, Mira is now at the end of its life, and has : evolved into a cool red giant star that is highly variable in brightness. : Contracting and expanding every 332 days, Mira sheds vast amounts of : material through its powerful "wind" of gas and dust. Okay, get a rope..... : Mira's companion is a burned-out star called a white dwarf that is : surrounded by material captured from Mira's wind. Awww, c'mon. He ain't that bad! Let's not get personal here! : At a distance of about : 400 light-years, Mira is the closest wind-accreting binary system to : Earth. And we thought all she could do was act! : Separating the spectra of Mira and its companion -- something astronomers : previously have tried to do through indirect means -- Like bringing his first wife back from the dead?? Or starting a civil war on Minbar??? IS JMS AN ASTRONOMER? It all makes sense now. : is a crucial step : for studies of physical processes associated with wind accretion in : binaries. What is this obsession with wind accretion? Hey, she's a person just like you and me. Only prettier. And more talented. : Mira was discovered on August 13, 1596, by Dutch astronomer David : Fabricus, who mistook it for a nova because it later faded from view. He : called it Mira, meaning "The Wonderful." Astronomers later realized it : was really the first case of a variable star. Ol' David knew what he was talking about. That's why Delenn and John will name their first-born after him! : The Space Telescope Science Institute is operated by the Association of : Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc., for NASA, under contract : with NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD. The Hubble Space : Telescope is a project of international cooperation between NASA and the : European Space Agency (ESA). ...and PTEN, WB, and TNT.... : Image files in GIF and JPEG format and captions may be accessed on the : Internet via anonymous ftp from oposite.stsci.edu in /pubinfo. : GIF JPEG : PRC97-26 Mira gif/mira.gif jpeg/mira.jpg SOMEBODY is gonna mistake this for a B5 site, you just know it! : Higher resolution digital versions (300 dpi JPEG) of the release : photograph are available in /pubinfo/hrtemp: 97-26.jpg (color) and : 97-26bw.jpg (black & white). Mira will be autographing for one hour only. Please, no flash photography. Debbie, who needs a life |
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