Glowing red 'time vortex' reveals hidden star sculptor

Jacob Aron, reporter

(Image: ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO))

The time vortex from Doctor Who it is not, but to astronomers, this glowing red, spiral star system is almost as extraordinary.

The old red giant star R Sculptoris sits at its centre, ejecting dust and gas every 10,000 to 50,0000 years to form a shell of surrounding material. Spherical shells have been seen around red giants before, but this kind of spiral is new and thought to have been sculpted by a previously unseen companion star carving through the material as it orbits R Sculptoris. It's an apt discovery: R Sculptoris got its name from the Sculptor constellation in which it lies.

A team of astronomers snapped the spiral using the new Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA). The most powerful telescope of its type in the world, it was designed to reveal fine details in wavelengths between infrared and microwave radiation. ALMA is still under construction and only half of its antennas were in place at the time of this observation, suggesting that even more unusual images could be to come once the array is completed in March next year.

Source: http://feeds.newscientist.com/c/749/f/10897/s/2454afb5/l/0L0Snewscientist0N0Cblogs0Cshortsharpscience0C20A120C10A0Cglowing0Ered0Etime0Evortex0Bhtml0Dcmpid0FRSS0QNSNS0Q20A120EGLOBAL0Qonline0Enews/story01.htm

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