Here is a news item who might be more than meets the eye. Who knows?
To understand the matter of this news, you need to read my page about the "Dyson spheres". a speculation from the scientist Freeman Dyson, who would allow the detection of possible very advanced "type II" technological civilizations in the universe.
When you have read my page about the Dysonspheres, you might find the news item below a little bit more interesting than just any other astronomical news:
A youg star has rejected a gas sphere, thus contradicting the theories on the formation of stars.
Spain, Chili, USA.
05.17.2001 - En éjectant une sphère de gaz, une jeune étoile à 2000 années-lumière de la Terre contredirait les théories sur la naissance des astres.
By ejecting a gas sphere, a young star at 2000 light-years of the Earth would contradict the theories on the starting of the stars.
The basic image, in infra-red, shows a portion of the constellation of Cepheus. The first insert is a radio waves image and the second shows the arc of the circle which the telescope observed (in blue).
According to current theories, a star is formed by two mechanisms: the star swallows little by little gases and dust in rotation around it, and at the same time, it rejects a fraction of its "meal". These expulsions - powerful matter jets located at the star's poles - would allow the the star to be stable during its growth, i.e. to continue to attract matter without disintegrating.
Pointing the VLBA telescope towards the Cepheus constellation, Jose Torrelles and his colleagues, however, observed a young star of the the Sun's size which did not have these jets. In fact, these researchers wrote in today's "Nature" that the microwaves which they observed describe an arc of almost perfect circle: a perfection which would indicate that this arc belongs to a sphere which, surrounding the star completely, would be as large as once and half our solar system! Moreover, this arc of circle is so thin and so uniform that the researchers believe that it was created in only one blow.
One of the questions which arises from now on is why these spheres were never observed before. Perhaps, the astronomers suggest, because their life time is very short: the steam sphere that they observed, indeed, would have formed in a short 33 years and, advancing at 32.000 kilometers per hour, would be on the point to disappear. These precise details, although rigorous, do not help to explain why a young star would reject a matter sphere rather than a jet. The scientists promised in any case, to check again if in the center of the sphere there really is ... a star!
Anick Perreault-Labelle
Copyright notice: the above article's original french version belongs to the excellent site Cybersciences.com. Many thanks to Anick Perreault-Labelle.
