Magnitude 8.02 Apparent magnitude (V) 8.02 | Constellation Centaurus | |
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Przybylski's Star /ʃᵻˈbɪlskiz stɑːr/, or HD 101065, is a rapidly oscillating Ap star that is located at a distance of roughly 370 light-years (110 parsecs) from the Sun in the southern constellation of Centaurus.
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Scientific history
In 1961, the Polish-Australian astronomer Antoni Przybylski (Polish pronunciation [ˈantɔɲi pʂɨˈbɨlski]) discovered that this star had a peculiar spectrum that would not fit into the standard framework for stellar classification. Przybylski's observations indicated unusually low amounts of iron and nickel in the star's spectrum, but higher amounts of unusual elements like strontium, holmium, niobium, scandium, yttrium, caesium, neodymium, praseodymium, thorium, ytterbium, and uranium. In fact, at first Przybylski doubted that iron was present in the spectrum at all. Modern work shows that the iron-group elements are somewhat below normal in abundance, but it is clear that the lanthanides and other exotic elements are highly overabundant. Lanthanide elements are from 1000 to 10,000 times more abundant than in the Sun. As a result of these peculiar abundances this star belongs firmly in the Ap star class.
Przybylski's Star also contains many different short-lived actinide elements with actinium, protactinium, neptunium, plutonium, americium, curium, berkelium, californium, and einsteinium being detected. Other radioactive elements discovered in this star include technetium and promethium.
Compared to neighboring stars, HD 101065 has a high peculiar velocity of 23.8 ± 1.9 km s−1.
Properties
HD 101065 is the prototype star of the roAp star class. In 1978, it was discovered to pulsate photometrically with a period of 12.15 min.
A companion has also been detected, a 14th magnitude star (in infrared) 8 arc seconds away. This would be a separation of nearly 1,000 AU, but there is a possibility that it is an unrelated star in a chance alignment.