Space
is a boundless sea of mystery. Strange things are constantly happening there
that surprise us, make scientists think, and finally give rise to new theories
and information. Today we will try to find out something about a star that is
structurally an ordinary star but its special behavior has made it an
extraordinary star in our eyes. Today our subject is Kapteyn's Star.
No
object in space is stable. Most of the objects are running on their fixed trajectory
at a certain speed according to the cosmic rules. In this case, the speed of
our Earth is 30 km per second or 1,08,000 km per hour. In the case of the Sun,
its value is 200 km per second or 7,20,000 km per hour. Judging by all these
velocities in terms of physics, it is very normal. But the speed of this
Kapteyn's star is very high. This type of super-moving star is divided into
different classes for different reasons. (Here the link is given to know in
detail about this https://spacejagat.blogspot.com/search/label/Based%20on%20Kinematics )
The Kapteyn's star is a star in the Halo Star category.
We
have to know one thing before learning about the Halo Stars. The structure,
shape, and stages of life of all these highly dynamic stars are similar to
those of other ordinary stars. Only their abnormal mobility distinguishes them
from other stars. Halo Star is one of the most primitive stars in space. Most
of these types of stars were born shortly after the creation of the universe.
Due to primitiveness, the amount of their fuel has decreased considerably over
time, as a result of which their brightness is very low today. This type of
star is usually found in spiral galaxies. Halo stars do not rotate on a
specific plane, centering on the galaxy. Sometimes it goes up a lot from the
plane of the galaxy and sometimes it goes down a lot. Some scientists estimate
that this type of star has gained so much momentum due to regular changes of
their plane. To date, 45 such stars have been found in our galaxy. One of these
stars is the Kapteyn's Star.
Scottish
astronomer Sir David Gill and the Dutch astronomer Jacobus Cornelius Kapteyn,
working at the Cape Observatory in the southern city of South Africa, Cape
Town, made a list of the positions of stars in space after long observations
from 1885 to 1889. The star, we are talking about today, also got a place in
the mentioned index, of course there was another name then. At that time the
name of this star was CPD-44-612. In 1876, when scientist Kapteyn and another
Scottish astronomer, Robert Thorburn Ayton Innes were re-examining the
constellation, they were surprised to find that
instead of its proper place, the star CPD-44-612 was far away from its
fixed place in space. That was the positional inconsistency of the star in
space which was first recognized then. They repeatedly tested the steps of mathematical
calculation, but the results were the same every time. Then they observed the
star again for some time and after calculating complex mathematical
calculations, in 1898 the two scientists realized that this star was not a star
of ordinary nature; its speed is very high. The star CPD-44-612 is later named
after Jacobus Cornelius Kapteyn after this discovery. However, there is no
denying that scientist Robert Thorburn Ayton Innes is also credited with
discovering the excessive velocity of this star.
When
this star was discovered, the fastest star in the sky was Groombridge-1830.
Subsequent calculations showed that the velocity of Kapteyn's star is 245.2 km
per second or 8,82,720 km per hour, the highest of all known high-velocity
stars. A few years after this discovery, another star with almost the same
speed was discovered in 1916, named Bernard's Star.
At
present, the distance between our Sun and Kapteyn's star is 12.63 light-years (Light
year: The distance, light travels in a year) or 3.93 parsec. In
terms of distance, this star is the nearest Halo star to the Sun. However,
10,900 years ago this distance was 7 light years or 2.1 parsec. Since then the
distance of our solar system with this star has been increasing. This star is
currently located in the Pictor constellation. In this constellation, the swarm
of moving stars, known as Kapteyn Moving Group, along with Kapteyn's star is
moving along a certain trajectory in space.
By
analyzing the components of this star, scientists have discovered that in the
past, Kapteyn's star was a member of a spherical galaxy called Omega Centauri.
This Omega Centauri was probably a dwarf galaxy that in the distant past rushed
towards our galaxy due to the intense gravitational force of our galaxy and as
a result there was a fierce collision and that dwarf galaxy merged with our
galaxy. The collision caused instability in the galaxy, which caused some
stars, such as the Kapteyn's star, to fall out of the galaxy and become
extremely fast-moving stars. Despite being an ordinary star, Kapteyn's star
became a special star for us for this special condition.
This
star is a sub-dwarf star of M1 class. At present, the diameter of the Kapteyn's
star is only 30 percent of the diameter of our Sun. If its brightness is
compared with that of the Sun, then it is only 1.2 percent of the brightness of
the Sun at present. At present the magnitude of luminosity of this star is 9.
According to the law of Astrophysics, The lower or negative the magnitudes of
luminosity of an astronomical object in space, the higher the luminosity of the
object in practical. This can be better understood when we know the magnitude
of luminosity of our nearest star, the Sun. If we measure the luminosity of the
sun standing now, it will come out -26.7. Kapteyn's star is visible to the
earth even though it is a star of such a dim nature. If the southern sky can be
seen with the help of powerful binocular or telescope on a dark night without
light, the Kapteyn's star will catch our eye even if it is very dim.
There
is a difference of opinion about the actual temperature of this star. Different
scientists have expressed their views on this subject at different times.
However, according to most scientists, if the temperature is too high, it will
be between 3,560 Kelvin and 3,630 Kelvin. For this value of temperature, the
brightness of this type of star is slightly lower than that of main sequence
stars. In addition to hydrogen and helium, the amount of matter in this star is
only 14 percent of the amount of other matter in our Sun. Surprisingly, with
the magnetic activity of the Chromosphere of this star; its brightness has
changed drastically. The spots of other stars change their position over time,
as does the Kapteyn's star, but the main difference is that these spots change
their position very quickly.
A
study in 2014 has given some idea of the time of birth of the Kapteyn's star.
It has already been said that this stars is a little ancient in nature.
Consistent with this information, the new information that has come before us
is that the origin of this star took place between 11.5 billion or 1,150 crore
to 12 billion or 1,200 crore years ago. In other words, the Kapteyn's Star
originated in just 1.8 billion or 180 crore years to 2.3 billion or 230 crore
years after the Big Bang. Compared to the events of space, this time gap
between Big Bang and the origin of Kapteyn's star is very short. So scientists
say that the star which has been radiating heat and light for more than hundred
of crores of years and its brightness has decreased with time which is very
normal phenomena.
Two
planets of this star, which rotated on its own axis in 85 days, were discovered
in 2014 under the names of Kapteyn-B and Kapteyn-C respectively. Kapteyn-B is
the oldest of them. The planet originated 11 billion or 1,100 crores years ago.
The planet orbits its star once every 48.6 days as Earth's time. Scientists
have estimated the distance between the Kapteyn star and the Kapteyn-B planet,
suggesting that the planet is in a place where life is possible, meaning that
it may be habitable. There is, of course, a disagreement about the second
planet in the family of Kapteyn star, Kapteyn-C. Some scientists do not even
acknowledge the existence of this second planet, while others do. According to
them, the planet orbits its star in 121.5 days as Earth's time. In 2021, the
existence of two planets has been questioned. This suggests that scientists
have a great lack of information on this subject. Therefore, more in-depth
observation and research is needed in this regard. Otherwise, the conflict
between these two types of completely opposite information will never go away.
It is certain that with the passage of time the use of new and modern technology will increase, the knowledge gained from previous research will help there more and their combined application will surely find a permanent and insurmountable solution to all the questions in our minds. This is the law of nature and we have to wait patiently for it.
DECLARATION: All The Images Have Been Sourced From Google.
