Planet Hunters Talk

Very strange yarn-shaped light curve

  • Cuboctahedron by Cuboctahedron

    This light curve is very strange. How does a star like this make this intricate pattern of brightness? I can't think of even one good explanation.

    Posted

  • Ptd by Ptd in response to Cuboctahedron's comment.

    Because its not one star, its two stars 😃 dancing with each other.
    This star is listed in VSX as an eclipsing binary with a period of just 0.305739 days
    https://www.aavso.org/vsx/index.php?view=search.top

    The LC looks strange because of shutter effect, interaction between this binary's short period and Kepler's 30 min sample period.

    Posted