Cygnus Surprise: Gamma-rays From A Nova For The First Time (Citizen Science Found This One Too)
Friday, August 13, 2010 - 11:28
in Astronomy & Space
Citizen scientists are doing big things in astronomy in 2010. A few days ago, three amateurs discovered PSR J2007+2722, a neutron star that rotates 41 times per second and a recent Science article highlights V407 Cyg in the constellation Cygnus, which is 9,000 light-years away and is a symbiotic binary containing a compact white dwarf and a red giant star about 500 times the size of the sun. On March 11, amateur astronomers Koichi Nishiyama and Fujio Kabashima in Miyaki-cho of Saga Prefecture in Japan imaged a dramatic change in the brightness of V407 Cyg - 10 times brighter than an image they had taken three days earlier. read more