Chandra Release - January 30, 2004

Visual Description: V471

The graphic features an X-ray spectra of a binary star system named V471 Tauri, which is dominated by white outlines and labels, and pink, green and blue colors in the chart on a black backdrop.  The chart displays a series of peaks and valleys, resembling a mountainous terrain or a wave-like structure. The V471 Tauri system comprises a white dwarf star (the primary) in a close orbit – one thirtieth of the distance between Mercury and the Sun – with a normal Sun-like star (the secondary). The white dwarf star was once a star several times as massive as the Sun. Chandra data on this system provide the best evidence yet that a star can be engulfed by its companion star and survive.  The X-ray spectra made by Chandra are of two individual stars and V471 Tauri: a red giant star (Beta Ceti, top panel), V471 Tauri, and a Sun-like star (Epsilon Eridani). A peak in the spectrum due to carbon ions is much smaller in the giant star than in the Sun-like star, whereas the carbon peak in V471 is intermediate between the two. These differences provide important clues to the different evolutionary histories of the stars.