Astronomers Document Star Evolution in Real Time
18 year-apart Radio Telescope observations reveal Star formation and evolution for the first time.
This is why Radio Telescopes > Optical Telescopes, IMO.
Astronomers have witnessed a key stage in the birth of a very heavy star, using two radio telescope views of the process taken 18 years apart.
The young star is 4,200 light-years from Earth and appears to be surrounded by a doughnut-shaped cloud of dust.
That cloud slows down the hot, ionised wind that the star blasts into space, causing it to form an elongated column perpendicular to the dusty ring.
The new results represent “before and after” glimpses of that column forming.
They were captured by the Very Large Array, a battery of 27 antennae in the New Mexico desert, and are published in the journal Science.
You will not hear about this news on Fox News or Glen Beck. But rest assured, this news is just huge in terms of human discovery and understanding of our Universe.