Have you hugged a red dwarf lately?

If not you still have plenty of time....

When i read up on stars one thing i find interesting is the rate at
which different stars consume their fuel.

You all probably know this but... big stars use fuel faster than
little ones and using our sun as a base you can quickly estimate the
longevity of other stars if you know their mass as a proportion of the
sun's mass. The calculations are findable via google.

Really big stars don't last long at all, no wonder we don't see many!
Small stars last a long time, no wonder they dominate the galaxy (i'm
sure formation influences the ratio too).

The lead news item on this site
http://planetquest.jpl.nasa.gov/
Tells of a brown dwarf circling a dwarf star with something like 9% of
the sun's mass.

I make that a lifetime of roughly over 4,000,000,000,000 years!
getting on for 400 times longer than our sun!

Some sci-fi stories tell of future civilisations in a dying universe
'hugging' dwarf stars for surival, with all the big stars long since
gone.

It's a fascinating universe out there, so now to something closer to
home - what's the best dwarf class star to view in the northern
hemisphere if you have a modest scope?

gswork nous a écrit :


It's a fascinating universe out there, so now to something closer to
home - what's the best dwarf class star to view in the northern
hemisphere if you have a modest scope?

Barnard's star in Ophiucus. Class M star.
As it's very close from the Earth, you can see its proper motion in a few
years.
Or 61 Cygni, which is a double K star.

--
Norbert. (no X for the answer)
======================================
knowing the universe - stellar and galaxies evolution
http://nrumiano.free.fr
images of the sky http://images.ciel.free.fr
======================================

"Norbert" wrote in message ...
gswork nous a écrit :


It's a fascinating universe out there, so now to something closer to
home - what's the best dwarf class star to view in the northern
hemisphere if you have a modest scope?

Barnard's star in Ophiucus. Class M star.
As it's very close from the Earth, you can see its proper motion in a few
years.
Or 61 Cygni, which is a double K star.

I should have thought of Barnard's star! That's the one coming vaigly
in our direction isn't it?

gswork nous a écrit :


I should have thought of Barnard's star! That's the one coming vaigly
in our direction isn't it?

Yes it is.
The Barnard's star is approching the Earth at the speed of 0.036 light year
each century.
In 10.000 years, it should be nearer of the Earth than Proxima Centauri.

--
Norbert. (no X for the answer)
======================================
knowing the universe - stellar and galaxies evolution
http://nrumiano.free.fr
images of the sky http://images.ciel.free.fr
======================================

Norbert wrote:

gswork nous a écrit :


I should have thought of Barnard's star! That's the one coming vaigly
in our direction isn't it?

Yes it is.
The Barnard's star is approching the Earth at the speed of 0.036 light year
each century.
In 10.000 years, it should be nearer of the Earth than Proxima Centauri.

Maybe we'll have a binary solar system some day. :-)


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Norbert wrote:

gswork nous a écrit :


I should have thought of Barnard's star! That's the one coming vaigly
in our direction isn't it?

Yes it is.
The Barnard's star is approching the Earth at the speed of 0.036 light year
each century.
In 10.000 years, it should be nearer of the Earth than Proxima Centauri.

Maybe we'll have a binary solar system some day. :-)


-----= Posted via Newsfeeds.Com, Uncensored Usenet News =-----
http://www.newsfeeds.com - The #1 Newsgroup Service in the World!
-----== Over 100,000 Newsgroups - 19 Different Servers! =-----

gswork nous a écrit :


I should have thought of Barnard's star! That's the one coming vaigly
in our direction isn't it?

Yes it is.
The Barnard's star is approching the Earth at the speed of 0.036 light year
each century.
In 10.000 years, it should be nearer of the Earth than Proxima Centauri.

--
Norbert. (no X for the answer)
======================================
knowing the universe - stellar and galaxies evolution
http://nrumiano.free.fr
images of the sky http://images.ciel.free.fr
======================================

"Norbert" wrote in message ...
gswork nous a écrit :


It's a fascinating universe out there, so now to something closer to
home - what's the best dwarf class star to view in the northern
hemisphere if you have a modest scope?

Barnard's star in Ophiucus. Class M star.
As it's very close from the Earth, you can see its proper motion in a few
years.
Or 61 Cygni, which is a double K star.

I should have thought of Barnard's star! That's the one coming vaigly
in our direction isn't it?

gswork nous a écrit :


It's a fascinating universe out there, so now to something closer to
home - what's the best dwarf class star to view in the northern
hemisphere if you have a modest scope?

Barnard's star in Ophiucus. Class M star.
As it's very close from the Earth, you can see its proper motion in a few
years.
Or 61 Cygni, which is a double K star.

--
Norbert. (no X for the answer)
======================================
knowing the universe - stellar and galaxies evolution
http://nrumiano.free.fr
images of the sky http://images.ciel.free.fr
======================================

gswork wrote:

You all probably know this but... big stars use fuel faster than
little ones and using our sun as a base you can quickly estimate the
longevity of other stars if you know their mass as a proportion of the
sun's mass. The calculations are findable via google.

I make that a lifetime of roughly over 4,000,000,000,000 years!
getting on for 400 times longer than our sun!

At a professional conference once, I saw an interesting poster paper
(stellar astronomy is my broad area of research interest) about how M
dwarf stars end their lives. My first thought: Gee, what a great paper
to write, since NO ONE can prove you wrong since none have died yet!

Doug