UI astronomers capture image at distant star

IOWA CITY - Two University of Iowa researchers have captured a first-of-its-kind image at a distant star.

The image - the first direct radio image of a stellar coronal loop at a star, other than the sun - could offer a better understanding of how such phenomena as space weather affect the Earth.

Robert Mutel, UI physics and astronomy professor, and his graduate student, William Peterson of Marshalltown, spearheaded the research, which included astronomers from New Mexico and Switzerland.

Findings were published in the Jan. 14 issue of the journal Nature.

The image of the coronal loop - roughly resembling a rainbow - was made of the star Algol, a well-known variable star in the constellation Perseus.

Algol (Arabic for demon) is also known as the Demon Star and is one of the first eclipsing binary stars and variable stars to have been discovered.

The two used a combination of 13 radio telescopes linked by computer to image the coronal loop.

Mutel said earlier attempts to image stellar coronal loops in visible light resulted in fuzzy blobs. The team used the global array of radio telescopes to make a series of images over a six-month period, which allowed them to image otherwise undetectable features.