Record breaker: Three and a half year long stellar eclipse

The work of a large collaboration of researchers and professional and amateur astronomers has found a star that appears eclipsed from earth for three and a half years. The star is part of the system TYC 2505-672-1 and is thought to be part of a binary system of two red giants.

The research was led by Joey Rodriguez and colleagues at Vanderbilt and Harvard universities as well as Lehigh, Ohio and Pennsylvania state universities. Through this collaboration 1432 images from the last century were pieced together of the star system and more were contributed by las Cambres Observatory Global network and the American association of variable star observers which has both amateurs and professionals as members.

The system is also remarkable, as Rodriguez notes, because “It’s the longest duration stellar eclipse and the longest orbit for an eclipsing binary ever found…by far”. The interval between eclipses is 69 years from which astronomers have calculated it must have an unusually large orbit for such a system.

From the images available the scientists believe the system is composed of two red giants one of which has been stripped to its core. It is theorised that the matter that once was part of the stripped red giant has now formed the thick disk of material that masks the system when it is viewed from earth.

The next eclipse will start in 2080 by which time the astronomers hope there will be telescopes powerful enough to resolve the two objects in the system independently.

Photo: http://www.astronomynow.com/news/n1004/08aurigae/