Most stars aren't solitary. Many stars have companions or are even part of a cluster. Recently astronomers noted a low mass companion seen in a nearby star. The low mass companion could be a new star forming.
HD 206893 has a debris field around it. Located in the debris field is a low mass companion. Low mass companions are those that are still in the process of forming into a star. The discovery of a low mass companion around it could be a good chance to observe its transformation into a star.
HD 206893 is a star located some 125 light years from the Earth. It is much bigger than the Sun, around 24 percent more massive than it. Estimate of its age range from 200 million years to around 2.1 billion years old. The star is being observed by a team led by Julien Milli of the European Southern Observatory (ESO) in Chile.
Milli and his team are using the ESO's Very Large Telescope (VLT) to look at HD 206893 and the debris field around it, according to Phys Org. By looking into its debris field, the team hopes to find new stars and planets. It is while looking into the debris field that the team has detected the low mass companion.
The low mass companion has been designated as HD 206893 B. It has a mass between 24 to 73 Jupiter masses and looks like a brown dwarf. The low mass companion also has a reddish color that is caused by dust. The dust particles are said to be giving it a reddish color.
The discovery of the low mass companion is part of the SPHERE High Angular Resolution Debris Disc Survey (SHARDDS) program, as posted on Arxiv.org. The researchers will continue to monitor the low mass companion and its orbit around the star. They also plan to get more images of the debris disk around the star. There is much to know about the low mass companion seen in a nearby star. Also seen is a hyper-burst galaxy that could provide clues to the universe's formation.
