My paper is out today in Nature Astronomy! You can read a summary the press release here: https://www.monash.edu/science/news-events/news/current/cosmic-chemistry-unveils-stellar-dance-alma-telescope-discovers-hidden-orbit-secrets
If you want to see the paper in all its scientific details, you can do so here: https://rdcu.be/du204
More details in thread...
We studied a binary system, known as W Aquilae, which is made up of a dying star and a sunlike star. We discovered that the two stars pass very close to each other once a millennium. The last time this happened was around 200 years ago.
We know this because the flyby (or periastron, in scientific terms) left a chemical imprint in the wind of the dying star.
What is a stellar wind? That's the material being ejected as the star dies and throws off its outer layers.
These types of dying stars are responsible for enriching their galaxies as they throw off material that goes on to become the building blocks of future stars and planets. We study them to better understand this process.
This time, we also got to better understand the star itself, its longer-lived sunlike companion, and how the two are interacting over timescales longer than a human lifetime.
Once more, the full article: https://rdcu.be/du204
And press-release: https://www.monash.edu/science/news-events/news/current/cosmic-chemistry-unveils-stellar-dance-alma-telescope-discovers-hidden-orbit-secrets
Taïssa Danilovich