Dying Star Puffs out six Smoke Rings - by BrianKoberlein
. It varies in brightness by about 1 – 2 magnitudes every 530 days, give or take. This is typical for dying red giant stars. As they fuse heavier elements in their core trying to survive, red giants often enter a period of oscillation, driven by the heating and cooling of the core. What’s more unusual is the fact that it is also a carbon star. This means that carbon fused in its core has been dredged up to the atmosphere of the star.
These two characteristics combined make V Hya an Asymptomatic Giant Branch star or AGB. About 90% of sunlike stars will enter an AGB period toward the end of their life. Astronomers have generally thought that the AGB epoch is a gradual process of stellar death, where the outer layers of the star are cast off over a period of about 100,000 years. After which, the remaining core collapses into a white dwarf. But V Hya shows this is either partly or sometimes incorrect.
This period of active bursts is likely short lived compared to the full AGB epoch, so astronomers are fortunate to capture a dying star in this stage. It isn’t known whether most AGB stars experience such active periods, or whether V Hya is particularly unusual. To solve that mystery, it will take more observations of other dying red giant stars.
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