Astrophysicists from USA and Germany have discovered the first strange non-chaotic attractor1 in space: a star, name KIC 5520878 - a part of the variable star2 family, that pulsates at characteristic frequencies3 fitting the Golden Ratio of 1.62.
The discovery was made when the researchers were scanning data from the Kepler Telescope for evidence supporting that advanced extra-terrestrial civilizations use variable stars2 for inter-galaxy communication.
Applications:
- This discovery could help clear up the physics behind such variable stars.
- It will help astronomers to better classify these objects and thus study their more subtle characteristics in detail.
Glossary:
1A strange chaotic attractor is an attractor system with properties of a fractal and the dynamics showing both chaos and order.
2A variable star is a star whose brightness (as visible from Earth) increases and decreases depending on how its size and shape oscillate at one or more frequencies.
3The two frequencies around which the variable star's brightness pulsates. For a strange non-chaotic attractor, these have a ratio of 1.62 (Golden Ratio).
Read full research at Physical Review Letters
Read full news at Physics World
