Context: Rare glimpse of an Accretion Burst in our galaxy caught by Astronomers
- Observing a star formation has been difficult because they form in close proximity to other massive stars.
- Stars are formed by rotating disc of gases, funneling matter into the centre of a growing star causing it to acquire more mass. Recently, astronomers found that the rate at which the funnelling of matter occurs differs from time to time.
- Periods in which the forming star swallows up a huge amount of matter results in a burst of activities. This is termed as an accretion burst event.
- Accretion burst types that may depend on the mass and evolutionary stage of the forming star.
- It’s an incredibly rare event that throughout our history we have been able to observe only three such events even though Milky Way has got billions of massive stars.
- Since the first detection of an accretion burst in 2016, astronomers of the world have come together to form the Maser Monitoring Organisation (M2O). The purpose of which is to validate reported bursts and follow it up with more observations.
Other
- A maser is a microwave equivalent for a laser and is a strong indicator of extraordinary space events such as a star formation. Masers can be observed through radio telescopes.
