Stea nou descoperita in Carul Mare
11 Decembrie 2009 de Mona ConstantinescuAlcor este o stea relativ tanara, de doua ori mai masiva decat Soarele. Atat ea cat si stelele vecine din Carul Mare s-au format din acelasi nor de materie (nebuloasa) acum 500 de milioane de ani. Alcor imparte locul ei din oistea Carului Mare cu o alta stea, Mizar. De altfel, unul din testele clasice de acuitate vizuala este sa fii capabil sa vezi separat cele doua stele cu ochiul liber.
Carul Mare, parte a constelatiei Ursa Mare si localizarea stelelor Alcor si Mizar. In caseta o imagine de detaliu cu sistemul binar nou descoperit. Foto: Project 1640/AMNH si Digital Universe Atlas
Acum 400 de ani, unul dintre colegii lui Galilei a observat ca Mizar este de fapt o stea dubla, acesta fiind primul sistem binar descoperit cu ajutorul unui telescop. Multi ani mai tarziu, se descoperea ca Mizar A si Mizar B cum au fost numite cele doua sunt de fapt la randul lor stele duble, Mizar fiind de fapt un sistem cvadruplu.
In luna martie a acestui an, o echipa internationala de astronomi a descoperit insa o stea pana acum neobservata in oistea Carului Mare. Noua stea a fost numita Alcor B, este un companion al stelei Alcor, nu este vizibila cu ochiul liber si a fost descoperita printr-o tehnica inovativa numita “miscare paralactica comuna”.
Alcor si companionul ei mai mic, Alcor B se afla la o distanta de 80 de ani lumina si se orbiteaza reciproc la fiecare 90 de ani. Alcor B este o stea pitica rosie, de 250 de ori mai masiva decat planeta Jupiter, sau cam un sfert din masa Soarelui, fiind mult mai mica si mai rece decat Alcor A.
Aceasta inseamna ca, de cate ori privim a doua stea din capatul oistii Carului Mare, vedem de fapt lumina emisa de cele sase stele impreuna, desi cu ochiul liber distingem numai una sau, daca suntem mai norocosi, doua stele.
Mi se pare foarte interesanta aceasta stire, dincolo de descoperirea unei noi stele la o distanta “atat de mica”, intr-un sistem indelung studiat.
Si anume, pentru ca o descoperire asemanatoare (sunt tentat sa scriu: “aceasta descoperire”) este “prevazuta” in piesa “Steaua fara nume” de Mihail Sebastian.
“-Dar steaua de-acolo, o stea mica? A sasea stea din Ursa Mare, o cunosti?
-Ai ochi buni, te felicit! E Alcor.
-Alcor?
-Acolo e si steaua mea. Steaua pe care-am gasit-o eu.
-Cum o cheama?
-Nu stiu, nu i-am dat inca niciun nume. Imi trebuie un nume de doua silabe care sa mearga impreuna cu Alcor.
-Dar esti sigur ca e acolo?
-Trebuie sa fie.
-De ce nu te uiti cu un ochean sau cu o luneta?
-Niciun ochean nu strabate pana acolo. Cand inchid ochii o vad mai departe, mult mai departe. Ii cunosc orbita, ii urmaresc drumul. Drumul pe care il strabate de mii de ani in intuneric, nevazuta, necunoscuta, nebanuita.
-Si nu se va vedea niciodata?
-Niciodata!”
Si, pentru ca surpriza sa fie si mai mare, avand in vedere numele autoarei acestui post, ceva mai jos in piesa:
“-Cum te cheama?
-Mona.
-Mona… ce nume frumos! Parc-ar fi un nume de stea… dar e un nume de stea: Alcor si Mona!”
A existat si un spectacol bazat pe aceasta piesa intitulat “Alcor si Mona” in regia Sandei Manu.
Banuiesc ca aceste multiple coincidente, ce par a oglindi “rasturnat” descoperirea progresiva a celor patru stele denumite initial Mizar, pot sa ne aduca aminte, daca mai era cazul, in context astronomic, cat de mica ne este lumea, precum in materie asa si-n noosfera.
In final, avand in vedere toate acestea, cine stie, poate ca numele de “Mona” nu este un nume tocmai rau pentru steaua actualmente denumita “Alcor B”. Cel putin pentru mine asa se va numi mereu.
Cer iertare pentru mesajul prea lung si va doresc toate cele bune,
C.
Se pare ca tie chiar iti place piesa asta. Ori asta, ori mereu faci conexiunea dintre numele Mona-piesa. Spun asta pentru ca mi-ai recomandat-o si mie acum 4 ani…
) Funny, isnt it? Scuze, dar chiar m-a amuzat coincidenta…
The scary stranger,
M.
Mie mi s-a pus numele, Mona dupa “Steaua fara nume” de unde si nick-ul. Putem face o cerere ca sa ii schimbe numele din Alcor B in Mona?
Semnam o petitie
Eu nu-s justificata sa cer pentru mine, pentru ca doar prietenii imi zic asa… Dar te pot sustine 
Actualizare: am trimis un mail primilor doi autori ai articolului in chestiune. Probabil ca ar fi interesant sa pornim si o petitie. Daca doreste cineva sa o porneasca il/o rog sa o faca, daca nu, o pornesc eu.
Iata mailul trimis de mine lui Neil Zimmerman si Ben R. Oppenheimer, primii doi autori ai articolului in chestiune:
“Hello and congratulations on your stellar discovery detailed in the paper “Parallactic Motion for Companion Discovery: An M-Dwarf Orbiting Alcor” due to appear in “The Astrophysical Journal”!
The reason I am writing this mail, aside from the above kudos, is to inform you of a very interesting coincidence involving this newly discovered star and a play named “Steaua fara nume” (English: “The Star Without a Name”/”The Nameless Star”) by the Romanian playwright and novelist Mihail Sebastian (1907-1945). Here is his Wikipedia entry:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mihail_Sebastian
and here is the stub for the aforementioned play:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Star_Without_a_Name
I will briefly describe the plot.
In the play, a high-school astronomy teacher named Marin Miroiu, living in a small province town, makes a similar discovery: he mathematically discovers a companion star of Alcor and he is frantically buys and studies various cosmic catalogs to make sure it is not already known to astronomers. As a very expensive catalog arrives by train and the teacher is at the railway station waiting for it, a beautiful young woman by the name of Mona, running away from her rich “protector” and lover, remains “stranded”, due to a lack of train ticket, in the little province town. He offers her his hospitality, and since she is hungry and tired, and other options seem worse, she agrees. Among other things, he discovers that she doesn’t even know about the Ursa Major, she has never seen it, and he tries to show it to her. Little by little, forced to acknowledge the fact that he invests basically all of his modest wage in astronomy books, he explains this by confessing to his discovery: he has found (”computed”) a companion star of Alcor, which has yet to be named. Because the star cannot be seen in the sky, just on paper, she becomes a bit frightened at his passionate explanations and the “astronomy lesson” stops for the moment.
Later in the play however, she begins to understand the life of this modest and passionate individual, in a way, the opposite of her rich, powerful but intellectually void protector/lover that she ran away from. So she asks Miroiu to tell her about his star again, and he obliges. At some points he asks her (only now) her name, and she says: “Mona”. He thinks it’s a beautiful name, star-like name, and instantly he gets the idea that it’s the perfect name for his star: Alcor and Mona. After a brief romance with Miroiu, towards the end of the play, her lover comes searching for her with a fancy automobile and she leaves with him—with a heavy heart, but still does because she is accustomed to the luxurious life-style that the astronomy teacher could never offer her and also, perhaps, because she understands that they live in different worlds. He is, of course, broken-hearted but was expecting this, “because a star never goes off her/its path”.
I will try to translate the two pieces of dialogue which have the greatest connection with this coincidence.
“-What about the star there, a small star? The sixth star in Ursa Major, do you know it?
-You’ve got good eyesight, congratulations! It’s Alcor.
-Alcor?
-My star is also there. The star that I found.
-What is its name?
-I don’t know, didn’t name it yet. I need a name of two syllables that goes together with Alcor.
-But are you sure it’s there?
-It must be.
-Why don’t you look for it with a spy glass?
-No spy glass can reach there. When I close my eyes I see it further, much further. I know its orbit, I follow its path. The path that it goes on for thousands of years through the darkness, unseen, unknown, unfathomed.
-And will it never be seen?
-Never!”
“-What is your name?
-Mona.
-Mona… what a beautiful name! As the name of a star… but it _is_ the name of a star: Alcor and Mona!”
Aside from this, there was also a show called “Alcor si Mona” (English: “Alcor and Mona”) based on this play, directed by Sanda Manu.
I was amazed at the wonderful coincidence your discovery bears to the one mentioned in this play, and while I understand there may be little chance for this, I would ask that perhaps you could kindly consider renaming the star from “Alcor B” to “Mona”. Mihail Sebastian is a very well-known Romanian playwright of Jewish origin who has lived a short but very productive life and the fact that _a very similar discovery_, not to call it _this discovery_ is claimed by a character in his play seems reason enough for me to at least ask that you kindly consider this. If you need more than the opinion of an individual, which I can completely understand, I am sure we could gather thousands of signatures of Romanians, on some online petition, if you could please let me know.
Thanks a lot for reading this unreasonably long but minimally explanatory message, and congratulations again on your wonderful discovery!”
dupa care urmeaza semnatura mea.
Keep us posted
Glady
Iata raspunsul lui Ben Oppenheimer:
“What a delightful and wonderful email. I had absolutely no idea about
this and I am thrilled to read this. Perhaps we ought to put the play
on here at the Museum? I’m dying to read it. I presume from the fact
that you translated these sections that there is no English
translation. (Forgive me, for my Romanian is not of any consequence
what so ever.) Perhaps we ought to attempt to give it a name in honor
of Mihail Sebastian, or rather as he named it, Mona, as you suggest.
Generally stars are given designations that are not names, but related
to where they are on the sky. The International Astronomical Union is
widely regarded as the authority on naming celestial objects, and it’s
rather difficult to over-ride the rules agreed upon by most
astronomers. The thing is, though, when a name is used enough, it
becomes *the* name . . .
I think I might start using this name myself. We can see whether it
catches on . . .
I’ll also forward (if you don’t mind) your email to my colleagues at
University of Rochester who, ironically, discovered the star
independently, though their paper has not yet been accepted for
publication.
Ben”