* Astronomy

Astronomers Release an Unprecedented Data Set on Variability of Celestial Objects
 
An example of a star that flares occasionally. This is a so-called dwarf nova, a binary star system where a material flows from a red giant star to a compact, dense white dwarf companion, and sometimes causes major explosions that do not destroy them. The graph shows a brightness history of this star over a period of 7 years. The pictures at the top correspond to the high and low states as indicated by the arrows. Such systems are important for understanding of stellar evolution, and the CRTS team has discovered nearly a thousand of them, much more than any other survey.
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