Space Capsule

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mers have called the “What pair it is topaz that the and naked eye, sapphire. Albireo is a tiny With single star a but separation
when you look
of 34 seconds of arc, at it the through pair a telescope...look!” is easily seen at low telescopic
power. The name has a magnificently confused and mistranslated
“Oh my God they’re so bright lights through the telescope.”
origin, and means nothing at all with regard to its position at the
head of Cygnus the Swan. Albireo beautifully shows how an apparently
single star as viewed through the telescope can actually
Albireo looked like a headlight bright and flat in a close very immediate. But that was nothing compared to what
happened next. A woman walks up, points her finger at the star.
be double, such “binary” stars appearing all over the sky. Somewhere
around half, or even more, of the local stars are actually
members of some kind of double or multiple system, the stars in
orbit about each other. The stars that make Albireo, about 380
light years away, are quite far apart however, and if actually attached
gravitationally have an extremely long orbit with a period
“OKso is it.”
of at least 75,000 years. Albireo is actually triple. The brighter
yellow-colored member, “Is that Albireo the one up here” A, is a much closer double made
of a third magnitude (3.3) class K (K3) stable helium-fusing bright
giant and a hotter but dimmer (magnitude 5.5) class B (B9) hydrogen-fusing
dwarf, the two stars not readily separable in the
and touches it.
telescope. The K giant has a temperature of around 4400 Kelvin,
a luminosity 950 times that of the Sun, a radius 50 times solar,
and a hefty mass of about 5 solar, while the close companion
comes One right touches in at the star. 11,000 That was Kelvin, close. Describe 100 what you solar just said luminosities, please. I turned on my and ringlets 3.2 and I pointed solar
masses. at the stars. It was On one average of the coolest things separated I have ever ever by ever about seen. Her name 40 was Astronomical Linda. She had a pen that Units, was
a laser. When she turned it on a focused bright green beam of light sprung from her hand to star like a long green
they take almost 100 years to go about each other on highly
fingers she literally touched the star and for a moment I forgot the ground underneath my feet and that that star Albireo
was 50 million light years away. It seemed right.
eccentric orbit. The visually-seen blue star, Albireo B, is similar
to Albireo A’s companion, and is a class B (B8) dwarf with a temperature
of 12,100 Kelvin, a luminosity of 190 Suns, and a mass
“I mean what do you see when you look up. Besides you know nebulous and stars
of 3.3 solar. It distinguishes itself by being a very rapid rotator
and star clusters. What do you sort of look for exactly.”
with an equatorial velocity of at least 250 kilometers per second
and a rotation period “Well less you than can really 0.6 see sort days. of like where As is you so are in often the universe the or at case least in
among such fast-spinning our own galaxy. stars, Albireo B is a “B-emission star”
that is losing matter and is surrounded by a disk of gas of its own
making. From Albireo B, Albireo A would appear as brilliant orbiting
And it orange makes like a and very interesting blue perspective points for about yourself. You half know a and degree like what life apart, is like here the and K what giant life
must be like in other worlds and whether or not there’s other planets out there with people or different lifeforms that
shining with the light of 35 full Moons, the close class B companwe
can’t comprehend.
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Space Capsule
The Golden Record