Epsilon Aurigae: Eclipses from beyond the Solar System

Epsilon Aurigae is an eclipsing binary with an unusually long period. Every 27 years a dark companion causes a dimming that lasts for nearly two years. The variability of Epsilon Aurigae was first discovered by the German astronomer Johann Fritsch in 1821 and the nature of the companion that eclipses it has puzzled astronomers ever since. The current eclipse, which began in 2009, has finally allowed astronomers to solve this long-standing mystery. High-resolution pictures, taken by combining the light of four telescopes more than 300 metres apart, have captured a magnified image of the mystery companion as it moves across the giant star behind. These images, roughly 140 times sharper than those taken with the Hubble Space Telescope, show the companion to be a thin disc of dust surrounding an as-yet-unseen companion star. This talk will explain what the latest observations have told us about Epsilon Aurigae and its companion.

Back to conference programme

 

About Nathalie Thureau

Nathalie Thureau is a postdoctoral research assistant at the University of St Andrews with a particular interest in high angular resolution imaging of stars with long-baseline optical interferometry. She has been involved in observing and developing instrumentation at major interferometric facilities around the world. This has included using the CHARA interferometer on Mount Wilson, California, to image Epsilon Aurigae. Her current research is on understanding the characteristics of debris disks around A stars with the Herschel Space Observatory.