Przybylski's star
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Przybylski's Star (or HD 101065) is an unusual stellar object discovered in 1961 by Antoni Przybylski (pronounced ['antɔɲi pʒɪ'bɪlski] ).
Przybylski's observations found unusually high amounts of iron and nickel in the star's spectrum, as well as more unusual elements like strontium, niobium, scandium, yttrium, cesium, neodymium, praseodymium, thorium, ytterbium, and uranium.
According to the Encyclopedia of Astrobiology, Astronomy, and Spaceflight, Przybylski's Star is...
"One of the most chemically peculiar stars known; it is named informally after its discoverer, the Polish-Australian astronomer, Antoni Przybylski....Apart from the usual lines of hydrogen and the calcium H and K, the strongest lines in HD 101065 are due to singly ionized lanthanides, presenting a spectrum similar to that of an S star, a highly evolved object whose atmosphere is enriched with recently synthesized material from deep within its interior. Yet, in other respects, HD 101065 appears to be a main sequence star or subgiant. One possibility is that it is a cool, extreme Ap star, a theory supported by the discovery of a several kilogauss magnetic field in HD 101065 similar to that of many other Ap stars. The outstanding difficulty with HD 101065 as an Ap star was that its spectrum didn't look like the others. Lines of neutral and first ionized iron are prominent in the spectra of Ap stars, and in some cases, the iron is clearly overabundant." (1)
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- Actinides in HD 101065 (Przybylski's Star) by C. R. Cowley, S. Hubrig, and D. J. Bord