Re: ASTRO: Comet-like trail of Mira
- From: "Ed Holden" <ed@xxxxxxxx>
- Date: Fri, 17 Aug 2007 03:37:02 GMT
"Andrew Smallshaw" <andrews@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
The only possibility I can think of is resistance caused by the
interstellar medium, but I would have thought that would be too
tenuous to cause this kind of effect, and even then it wouldn't
form such a neatly defined trail. Anyone have any thoughts on
this?
Yep, I have lots of thoughts on this, but time permits me to post
only two of those. Yes, the ISM is tenuous, but even if we only
assume a pessimistic 1 atom per cm3, the sheer angular size of
Mira would therefore allow it encounter a lot of atoms at its
velocity of 130,000 m/sec.
Another idea is that the star's wind ejection speed is faster than
it's forward motion, and is therefore ramming into its own gas.
.
- References:
- ASTRO: Comet-like trail of Mira
- From: Andrew Smallshaw
- ASTRO: Comet-like trail of Mira
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