Laboratory products help scientists to study star system

The Royal Astronomical Society has revealed its latest science news, in which an X-ray binary star system has been studied by researchers in the Netherlands and Wales.

Led by Fraser Lewis of the Faulkes Telescope Project at the University of Glamorgan and Dr David Russell, of the University of Amsterdam, the results are set to be formally presented by the former at the RAS National Astronomy Meeting in Llandudno, Wales today (April 18th).

Using eight telescopes simultaneously, the system has been studied in an attempt to understand its unprecedented behaviour, which began in September 2008.

The system's brightness increased by a factor of one thousand - at X-ray wavelengths - and by 100 times in visible wavelengths for a period of 20 days, before fading away and then brightening again.

While the increase in brightness is not in itself strange, the researchers explain, the timescale is. This typically occurs for a period of months or years, they state.

Earlier this month, the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) delivered its first astronomical observations for a team of scientists in Germany.

SOFIA can be used to deliver more detailed images than it is possible to obtain with land-based telescopes.