The Terrible Twos: What Might Happen If Our Sun Had A Twin

Chandra_181_1024

chandra_181 November 21st, 2001

Credit: NASA/CXC/M.Weiss

The blue spheres are an artist's conception of two closely orbiting stars known as 44i Bootis. The stars pass in front of one another every three hours. The red arrow in the illustration indicates the direction that the stars are orbiting. Chandra's data on the Neon X-ray emission from the stars is depicted on the plots to the right. The 4 panels show the shift in the wavelength at which the emission peaks as the stars orbit one another. By using the Doppler effect the same process that causes the wavelength of an ambulance's siren to shift up and down as the ambulance approaches and recedes astronomers were able to pinpoint the location of the source of most of the X-rays. To their surprise, they found that the stars produce most of the X-rays from near their poles. In contrast, the active X-ray regions on the Sun tend to be near the equator.

Provider: Chandra X-ray Observatory

Image Source: http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/2001/0176/

Curator: Chandra X-ray Observatory, Cambridge, MA, USA

Image Use Policy: http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/image_use.html

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Image Details

Image Type
Artwork
Object Name
44i Bootis
Subject - Milky Way
Star > Grouping > Binary

Distance

Universescale1
42 light years

Position Details

Position (ICRS)
RA = 15h 3m 47.0s
DEC = 47° 39’ 15.1”
Constellation
Bootes

Color Mapping

  Telescope Spectral Band Wavelength
Blue Chandra (ACIS-HETG) X-ray (X-ray) 826.7 pm
Spectrum_xray1
Blue
Chandra_181_1280
×
ID
181
Subject Category
B.3.6.1  
Subject Name
44i Bootis
Credits
NASA/CXC/M.Weiss
Release Date
2001-11-21
Lightyears
42
Redshift
42
Reference Url
http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/2001/0176/
Type
Artwork
Image Quality
Good
Distance Notes
Facility
Chandra
Instrument
ACIS-HETG
Color Assignment
Blue
Band
X-ray
Bandpass
X-ray
Central Wavelength
0.8267
Start Time
2000-04-25T04:16:24
Integration Time
57600
Dataset ID
14
Notes
Coordinate Frame
ICRS
Equinox
J2000
Reference Value
225.9458, 47.6542
Reference Dimension
Reference Pixel
Scale
Rotation
Coordinate System Projection:
Quality
Position
FITS Header
Notes
Creator (Curator)
Chandra X-ray Observatory
URL
http://chandra.harvard.edu
Name
Chandra X-ray Observatory Center
Email
cxcpub@cfa.harvard.edu
Telephone
617.496.7941
Address
60 Garden St.
City
Cambridge
State/Province
MA
Postal Code
02138
Country
USA
Rights
http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/image_use.html
Publisher
Chandra X-Ray Center
Publisher ID
chandra
Resource ID
0176_illustration.tif
Metadata Date
2011-07-08
Metadata Version
1.2
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Detailed color mapping information coming soon...

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Universescalefull
42 light years

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