Vampire star caught in the act by ASTROSAT

  • India’s first dedicated space observatory, ASTROSAT has captured the rare phenomenon of a small six-billion-year-old vampire star preying on a bigger celestial body. 
  • The vampire star phenomenon is observed when smaller star sucks material (mass and energy) out of the bigger companion star, causing its eventual death. 
  • It is also called a blue straggler as small star becomes bigger, hotter and bluer, giving it the appearance of being young, while the ageing companion burns out and collapses to a stellar remnant. 
  • Astrosat is India’s first dedicated multi-wavelength space observatory launched in September 2016.
  • It is one of the major scientific missions of ISRO after the highly acclaimed Chandrayaan-I and Mangalyaan.

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