HomeSpace NewsNASA's SOFIA flying telescope spots eclipse of odd binary star

NASA’s SOFIA flying telescope spots eclipse of odd binary star

A composite image of the R Aquarii binary star captured by NASA’s flying telescope SOFIA. (Image credit: NASA)

NASA’s flying telescope SOFIA has been watching a dance between two stars orbiting each other as they approach the moment of eclipse, allowing astronomers to study how the two exchange stardust. 

SOFIA, short for “Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy,” has observed the binary star R Aquarii, located in the constellation Aquarius some 720 light-years away from Earth, since 2018, when the smaller of the two stars in the  system started eclipsing the brighter star from the perspective of Earth.. 

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