Loneliest Young Star Spotted By Spitzer and WISE

Spitzer and WISE saw a solitary young star, obviously far for any celestial bodies. But despite that, the young star is believed to be in a process of a "tremendous" growth and outburst.

Initially detected by NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory, the object called CX330 is believed to be a source of X-ray in 2009. But aside from that, it was established that the object also emits optical light. Scientists then considered CX330 a mysteries object because of its behavior.

Researchers from the Texas Tech University surveyed the images taken by the NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) and found out the object was surrounded by warm dust that could have been caused by an outburst just like a young star.

With the data of WISE from 2010 compared side by side with Spitzer Space Telescope data in 2007, researchers were able to conclude that the object is more likely a young star that is undergoing formation and growth for the past years. According to the study, in a span of three years, the object's brightness has already increased a drastically by a few hundred times supporting the theory that it could indeed be a young star.

To support the findings, astronomers analyzed other data collected of the object using other instruments like the Earth-based SOAR, Magellan and Gemini telescopes. For the light intensity, they used the large telescope surveys VVV and OGLE-IV. With these intensive processes, they were able to conclude what the mystery object CXX330 is.

"We tried various interpretations for it, and the only one that makes sense is that this rapidly growing young star is forming in the middle of nowhere," Chris Britt, postdoctoral researcher and lead author of the study said in a press release.

The loneliest young star possesses behaviors similar toy young growing and outbursting star but according to experts, CX330 is more compact and hotter. "The disk has probably heated to the point where the gas in the disk has become ionized, leading to a rapid increase in how fast the material falls onto the star," said Thomas Maccarone, study co-author in a statement.

Based on the study it is proven that the star is not only more intense than the rest of young stars but also the loneliest given its isolated location far from any celestial object.