Sunday, February 7, 2010
01/09/2007 Be a Star
That's a play on words, the type of star shown above is a "Be" star, which means it's a Type B star with emission characteristics in its spectrum. Be stars have a disk of gas surrounding them (perhaps a baby solar system in early stages of formation???). The gas becomes excited by the radiation from the hot young B star, and thus gives off its own emission radiation, which is especially measurable to us in the Hydrogren-alpha region.
But, since the disk of gas is rapidly rotating and one side of it is (relatively speaking) approaching us while the other is receding, the H-alpha line becomes widened with a blue-shifted and red-shifted component. In the middle, the opacity of the gas is such that an absorption feature is superimposed on the emission line. This causes a double-peak.
So, I decided to give it a try. My target was Omega Orionis, and I took a ccd image through the refractor as well as a low- and high-resolution spectrum through the 14" RCX.
To see a larger version of this image, click here.
As you can see I am having a lot of fun with the spectrograph these days! There are a great many mysteries to be discovered out there.
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