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Imaging the Surface of Altair

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 نشر من قبل John D. Monnier
 تاريخ النشر 2007
  مجال البحث فيزياء
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 تأليف John D. Monnier




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Spatially resolving the surfaces of nearby stars promises to advance our knowledge of stellar physics. Using optical long-baseline interferometry, we present here a near-infrared image of the rapidly rotating hot star Altair with <1 milliarcsecond resolution. The image clearly reveals the strong effect of gravity darkening on the highly-distorted stellar photosphere. Standard models for a uniformly rotating star can not explain our results, requiring differential rotation, alternative gravity darkening laws, or both.

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