the precise temperature of the companion star, its size and brightness.
the precise temperature of the companion star, its size and brightness. This has been possible only due to the excellent capability of the UVIT telescope," Subramaniam added.
The UVIT is made of twin telescopes with an effective diameter of 375mm each and records images in the Far UV, Near UV and visible frequencies. UVIT provides very sharp UV images over a field of view as large as the Moon.
"The companion (the bigger star) is still going through ageing and has not yet become a remnant. It is also hot and large. Therefore it appears very bright in ultraviolet image, but not so bright in an image taken with an optical telescope looking at visible light," she said.
This is why previous studies of the 'blue straggler' in the optical range could not detect the companion. "This pair thus becomes a rare sample to study the details of the formation of blue straggler stars," Subramaniam added.
The purpose of ASTROSAT is to understand high energy processes in binary star systems containing neutron stars and black holes, estimate magnetic fields of neutron stars, study star birth regions and high energy processes in star systems lying beyond our galaxy.
It is also tasked to detect new briefly bright X-ray sources in the sky and perform a limited deep field survey of the universe in the Ultraviolet region.
Apart from the UVIT, the ASTROSAT also includes a Large Area X-ray Proportional Counter (LAXPC), a Soft X-ray Telescope (SXT), a Cadmium Zinc Telluride Imager (CZTI) and a Scanning Sky Monitor (SSM).
These instruments observe the sky for electro-magnetic radiations in the visible, ultraviolet and X-ray frequency ranges coming from distant celestial sources.
(This article has not been edited by DNA's editorial team and is auto-generated from an agency feed.)
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