The Power of 3.2 Million Suns
EmailYes, yes, the economy is struggling and the price of gas is staggering, but it’s still nice to know about the Peony nebula. The Spitzer Space Telescope, a cousin of the Hubble that examines mostly infrared light, has spotted a star there that may just be the brightest in our galaxy. More likely, it’s number two, after a star called Eta Carina — but it’s bright enough for government work, shining with 3.2 million times the light of our sun. It is 150 to 200 times as massive. It’s circled in the image below. Why, if it’s so bright, has nobody noticed it in the 400 years since Galileo turned his first telescope on the night sky? Because it’s close to the core of the Milky Way, and the core is a remarkably dusty place. It never stood out until it was examined in the infrared. The research was led by Lidia Oskinova of Potsdam University in Germany, who says, for all we know, there may be brighter stars yet. The business of star comparison, under the circumstances, is imprecise. She adds that the Peony nebula star may be near the end of its life span — and when it gets there, the end will be violent. "When this star blows up, it will evaporate any planets orbiting stars in the vicinity," she’s quoted as saying. Don’t you hate it when that happens?
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Ned – Do you know how this compares with the known mega-stars like Rigel and Deneb?
Posted by: jock59801 | July 15, 2008, 3:57 pm 3:57 pm
Note from Ned–
Hello, Jock. My understanding is that this thing is way, way brighter. Rigel is actually a triple star with a combined luminosity about 130 times that of the Sun. Deneb has a luminosity 66 times as much.
Both appear brighter because they’re closer. The Rigel system is 733 light-years away. The Peony nebula star, designated WR 102ka, is 26,093 light-years away.
Posted by: Ned Potter | July 15, 2008, 4:17 pm 4:17 pm
Correct me if I’m wrong, but this star would appear as bright as our sun if it were a bit more than 50.7 light-years away. Imagine how bright it would be if it were where Proxima Centauri is! I doubt that life as we kinow it could exist under such conditions.
Posted by: Bob | July 15, 2008, 5:35 pm 5:35 pm
150 to 200 times as massive as the Sun puts this one right at the upper theoretical limit for star sizes if not over it. Gonna be some interesting physics come out of this star. If and when it blows it’s going to be really bright and hopefully not completely obscured by dust.
Posted by: Andy Clark | July 15, 2008, 8:01 pm 8:01 pm
By the way Deneb is a very luminous somewhere around 100,000 greater than the sun. It is thought to be at least 1,500 light years away.
Rigel is around 770 light years away and about 60,000 times the luminosity of the sun.
Posted by: Roger | July 15, 2008, 10:25 pm 10:25 pm
Nice. It’s great how our understanding of the way things work change almost daily, with new discoveries. Sadly, thats a double-edged sword for science. On one hand there are people who understand that science is constantly changing, and on the other hand, there are people who don’t understand, and have come to mistrust science, just because it’ll tell you one thing one day, and another thing the next. But I think this is just a lack of proper education in our country.
And Ned, thanks for passing the doom and gloom on some one else’s solar system. But yes, we do hate it when that happens.
Posted by: Lawrence | July 16, 2008, 8:38 am 8:38 am
Can you imagine the power you could get if we put an array of solar panels around that thing? Of course, there would be losses incurred over that distance, but still the potential is there, so to speak.
Posted by: Andy | July 16, 2008, 12:52 pm 12:52 pm
Andy, you are a genious. We could go out there, set up some over compensatingly large solar arrays, collect the vast amount of energy and send it back to Earth. All we have to do is make traveling 26,000 light years a little less……time consuming. Then figure out how to build a huge solar power plant out there in a short amount of time. And lastly, how to transfer the power. Batteries wouldn’t work, so we’d have to figure out how to beam it back, with minimal loss of energy. Yea, great idea. Care to go into business with me Andy?
Posted by: Lawrence | July 16, 2008, 11:15 pm 11:15 pm
Sure, Lawrence. We could call the company “Unworkable Nonsense, Inc.” But I would imagine that sooner or later, we’ll get smart enough to realize that we can to something similar here in our own little corner of the universe. All it would take is some will and a modicum of political backbone. Too bad that both seem to be in short supply here.
Posted by: Andy | July 17, 2008, 7:47 am 7:47 am
Well — compared to VY Canis Majoris, this star is a wee nothing (VY is about a billion times more massive than our sun and over 1000 times the diameter of the sun). So, Deneb and the others are kinda tiny-ish. But for local players, this is totally impressive.
Posted by: Tim | July 21, 2008, 7:22 pm 7:22 pm
SUB:Lead Kindly Light-Drive Function
I am happy to see this interaction
Rigel-Triple star at 730-770 Ly confirms to drive away darkest mode region down below
Deneb at 1500 Ly helps middle zone-Intergalactic frame
WR 102 KA at 26,00 LY is most welcome
All these confirm to my projected predictions in my books leading to Universe Modeling- Cosmology Vedas-Links help Science to advance and derive knowledge from Philosophy.
Search Cosmology Vedas interlinks
Posted by: Vidyardhi Nnduri | November 28, 2008, 10:41 am 10:41 am
is it true that if and when wr102 goes it will send dangerous gamma rays in our direction?
Posted by: ernest jimenez | January 9, 2010, 1:35 am 1:35 am