(UNI) An adolescent star in the midst of a dramatic growth phase has been observed with the help of two NASA space telescopes.
The youngster belongs to a class of stars that gain mass when matter swirling around the star falls onto its surface, NASA said in an official statement on Wednesday.
The star belongs to a class of fitful stars known as FU Ori’s, named after the original member of the group, FU Orionis (the capital letters represent a naming scheme for variable stars, and Orionis refers to its location in the Orion constellation).
The in-falling matter causes the star to appear about 100 times brighter.
Typically, these stars, which are less than a few million years old, are hidden behind thick clouds of dust and hard to observe. This new object is only the 25th member of this class found to date and one of only about a dozen caught in the act of an outburst.
The new findings shed light on some long-standing mysteries surrounding the evolution of young stars, including how they acquire all of their mass. This rarely observed outbursting behavior could be common but might typically be hidden from our view by thick clouds of dust.