A Glimpse at the Future of Our Sun
Submit on Friday, July 21st, 2006 05:49
Ring nebula. Image credit: Goodrich/Bolte/W. M. KeckClick to enlarge
A team of astronomers recently used Arizona’s Infrared-Optical Telescope Array (IOTA) of three linked telescopes to peer 4 billion years into the future, when our Sun balloons up to become a red giant star. The three instruments act as a powerful interferometer, providing a view that would only be possible with a much larger instrument. They observed several red giant stars – the eventual fate of our Sun – and discovered their surfaces to be mottled and varied, covered with enormous sunspots.
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