Probing the members of globular clusters. (cataclysmic variables in star clusters)(Brief Article)

From: Science News | Date: July 1, 1995| Author: | Copyright information

When a white dwarf, a type of compact star, pulls matter from a close stellar companion, periodic fireworks can result. Over the years, astronomers have found a multitude of these pairs of mercurial stars, known as cataclysmic variables. Now, scientists have for the first time obtained spectra of tightly orbiting binary stars, which may well be cataclysmic variables, within the crowded confines of a globular star cluster.

Jonathan E. Grindlay of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Mass., Adrienne Cool of the University of California, Berkeley, and their ...

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