NASA’s Hubble Tracks Down a ‘Blue Lurker’ Among Stars
January 13, 2025
A team of astronomers using NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope has discovered a rare and elusive type of star lurking within a nearby galaxy. The star, nicknamed a “blue lurker,” is a hot, massive star that has long been hidden from view by thick clouds of gas and dust.
Blue lurkers are thought to be the progenitors of Type Ia supernovae, which are powerful explosions that play a crucial role in the evolution of galaxies. However, these stars are notoriously difficult to find, as they are typically enshrouded in obscuring material.
The newly discovered blue lurker is located in the galaxy NGC 1313, which is about 15 million light-years away from Earth. The star was first spotted by Hubble in 2019, but it took several years of additional observations to confirm its true nature.
“This is a really exciting discovery,” said lead author Patrick Kelly of the University of California, Berkeley. “Blue lurkers are like the Holy Grail of astrophysics. They are incredibly rare, but they are also essential for understanding the evolution of galaxies.”
The team used Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3 to observe the blue lurker in both visible and ultraviolet light. The ultraviolet observations allowed the team to penetrate the obscuring gas and dust, revealing the star’s true color and temperature.
The blue lurker is about 10 times more massive than the Sun and has a surface temperature of about 30,000 degrees Celsius. It is also 매우 밝습니다., emitting about 100,000 times more light than the Sun.
The team estimates that the blue lurker is about 10 million years old. This is relatively young for a star of its type, which typically have lifetimes of about 100 million years.
“The fact that this blue lurker is so young is another exciting discovery,” said Kelly. “It suggests that these stars may be more common than we thought, and that they may play a more significant role in the evolution of galaxies.”
The team plans to continue to study the blue lurker using Hubble and other telescopes. They hope to learn more about its properties and its role in the evolution of NGC 1313.
“This discovery is a major step forward in our understanding of blue lurkers,” said Kelly. “We are now one step closer to unraveling the mystery of these enigmatic stars.”
NASA’s Hubble Tracks Down a ‘Blue Lurker’ Among Stars
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