R Coronae Borealis (RCB) stars are among the rarest objects in the sky. These hydrogen-deficient supergiant stars — fewer than 150 have been confirmed in our entire galaxy — experience dramatic and unpredictable brightness drops, sometimes fading by seven or eight magnitudes over just a few weeks. The cause is striking: clouds of carbon dust …
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High School Students Publish Research on Double Star System WDS 22267+4433
Can two stars be gravitationally bound to each other across the void of space? Determining whether a pair of stars that appear close together in the sky are actually in orbit around each other — or merely close in our line of sight by coincidence — requires measuring their positions precisely, repeatedly, over many years. …