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Egg shaped super bright dwarf
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| lowmal | Date: Monday, 06.05.2013, 06:32 | Message # 1 |
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Observer
Group: Newbies
United States
Messages: 7
Status: Offline
| So I was floating around and I saw a bright star in the distance and went to explore it and expected a red giant star, but it turns out it was classified as an M2 star. Why would an M2 red dwarf be so bright from a distance and appear as an egg. It's not even spinning that fast. It's also massive, at over 1 AU diameter. The first pictures shows how bright the star appears from a great distance: it's brighter than stars that are larger and hotter than it (many of the "average" stars -like the sun- fade away after awhile, while this star remains bright from great distances). Second pic is obviously showing the odd shape. Is this a bug or am I missing something?
Actually since it's over 1AU I guess a 9 day spin might cause it to have the egg shape. The main thing that confuses me though is why it's a red dwarf, I thought red dwarfs were relatively small stars.
Edited by lowmal - Monday, 06.05.2013, 06:50 |
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| LiveLife42 | Date: Monday, 06.05.2013, 06:46 | Message # 2 |
 Explorer
Group: Users
United States
Messages: 272
Status: Offline
| The egg shape is real there are oblate stars and planets.
And as for the dwarf I don't know but it is a catalog star so 
PC: Intel Core i7-3770K o/c 4.6 Ghz Quad Core, 16GB DDR3 o/c 1866 Mhz, EVGA GeForce 980Ti with 6GB VRAM
Edited by LiveLife42 - Monday, 06.05.2013, 06:47 |
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| Watsisname | Date: Monday, 06.05.2013, 07:26 | Message # 3 |
 Galaxy Architect
Group: Global Moderators
United States
Messages: 2613
Status: Offline
| It has the wrong spectral classification, probably due to an error in the star catalog. It's listed as an M2 V, which would be a main-sequence star and thus correctly labelled as a red dwarf, but it has the properties of an M2 III, which is a red giant star like Aldebaran. The enormous size explains why it is so luminous, and for the given rotation rate also bulges so much.
Edited by Watsisname - Monday, 06.05.2013, 07:28 |
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| Frostbreath | Date: Monday, 06.05.2013, 11:24 | Message # 4 |
 Space Pilot
Group: Translators
Netherlands
Messages: 118
Status: Offline
| You just found an Easter Egg!
Lol joke!
Amateur astronomer. Owner of a Celestron C8 telescope and, of course, Space Engine. Translator for Dutch.
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| apenpaap | Date: Monday, 06.05.2013, 12:17 | Message # 5 |
 World Builder
Group: Users
Antarctica
Messages: 1063
Status: Offline
| Quote (lowmal) It's not even spinning that fast.
Considering it's 1.38 AU across, it's actually spinning very fast. Its surface lies about as far from the core as Venus' orbit, and Venus takes 225 days to orbit, while this star rotates within ten days. Even at eight sun masses, that's very fast for something that big.
I occasionally stream at http://www.twitch.tv/magistermystax. Sometimes SE, sometimes other games.
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| lowmal | Date: Monday, 06.05.2013, 19:26 | Message # 6 |
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Observer
Group: Newbies
United States
Messages: 7
Status: Offline
| Yeah I realized shortly after making the message that given the huge size, 9 days is quite fast. Thanks for the explanation guys :D. It was a cool find though, one of the awesome things about this "game."
Edited by lowmal - Monday, 06.05.2013, 19:27 |
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| Betelgeuze | Date: Wednesday, 21.05.2014, 12:19 | Message # 7 |
 Space Pilot
Group: Banned
Belgium
Messages: 118
Status: Offline
| in real life easter egg Yellow and black spots !
look like Red Dwarf with sunspots in real life!!
[Moderator message]
I hope you enjoyed making this post, because it's the last one you'll be making for a while.
Edited by HarbingerDawn - Wednesday, 21.05.2014, 13:29 |
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