A few months back, astronomers officially confirmed the existence of “betelbuddy,” the long-close star of Betelgese. Since then, researchers have been trying to find a betelbuddy-finding that with each observation, the star rises further away from the initial expectations.
A recent study published in the Astrophysical Journal presents a comprehensive analysis of betelbuddy using data collected by NASA’s X-ray telescope and the Hubble Space Telescope. In the deepest X-ray documentation of betelgese to date, “investigators found that Betolbuddy may be a small interstellar object (YSO) about the size of our Sun.
This confirms a separate, earlier study that predicted Betelbuddy’s striking youth compared to Betelgese, a red dwarf near the end of its stellar life. At the same time, the discovery clears up a few advocacies about the stars made in Stelbuddy’s Stellar form by construction.
Hang in there, buddy!
The project became a “race against time,” as the researchers explained in a statement, as it managed to capture the betelbuddy in the nick of time before it disappeared after the next two years.
The Gemini telescope of Gemini in Hawaii captured a bad image of Betelbuddy, which itself was a spectacular object in itself, like a very small partner, “explains the small partner, said the author of the postdoctol University at Carnegie Mellon University, in a statement.
To put this in perspective, betelgese is about 700 times the size of our sun and thousands of times more. Therefore, the team looked at other methods to investigate the young star: IX-ray imaging and UV spectroscopy. That Chandra and Hubble accepted their proposals to observe the same event proves the astrophysical community’s excitement about betelbudy, the researcher said.
“It turns out there was never a good sighting where Betolbuddy wasn’t behind Betelgese,” O’Grady said. “The fact that we can now confirm something shows how far our science has come.”
An unusual stellar pair
When the data supported the existence of betelbuddy, astronomers began to look at what kind of star it might be. A more “typical” explanation would be that, given its small size and Belgeuse’s age, betelbuddy was a compact neutron star or a white dwarf.
“And those are very different things,” O’grady said. “If it was one of those things, it would point to a very different natural history of the system.”
As the rest of the universe would have it, Betelbuddy was not, he added. The smaller companion did not show evidence of accretion, “significant” neutron stars or white dwarfs. The X-ray data strongly favors betelbuddy as a minor stellar object. At present, it is difficult to “put strong constraints on its severity,” the paper noted, although the new findings are still consistent with the scope of the Mass predicted by betelbudy in July.
The bottom line is that betelbuddy is much smaller than betelgese. This challenges the conventional wisdom that pairs of binary stars are usually identical in mass. If the observations hold, betelgese is present somewhere between 15 and 18 times betelbuddy – an “astounding” ratio, the researchers said.
“This opens up a new realm of Extreme Mass Ratio Minaties,” said O’Grady, saying it shows the existence of an entirely new class of binary stars that are confused stars. “It’s an area that hasn’t been explored much because it’s very difficult to find or see like we were able to do with betelgese.”
As researchers say, Betelbuddy won’t appear within range for another two years. But when the dwarf star makes its return in November 2027, astronomers will be ready to learn more.
