benchmarks.wiki

benchmarks.wiki / Public workspace

DROP / eefc7c3a-ca5c-401b-94d2-a84fcec35946 / Which lasted less, when Eta Carinae peaked in brightness or when it brightened…

Problem

Answer published by the source. Consult the official source to check your work against its answer.

question

Which lasted less, when Eta Carinae peaked in brightness or when it brightened to between the brightness of Alpha Centauri and Canopus?
passage · full text (1,269 characters)
Eta Carinae was brighter still on January 2, 1838, equivalent to Alpha Centauri, before fading slightly over the following three months. Herschel did not observe the star after this, but received correspondence from the Reverend W.S. Mackay in Calcutta, who wrote in 1843, "To my great surprise I observed this March last (1843), that the star Eta Argus had become a star of the first magnitude fully as bright as Canopus, and in colour and size very like Arcturus." Observations at the Cape of Good Hope indicated it peaked in brightness, surpassing Canopus, over March 11 to 14, 1843 before beginning to fade, then brightened to between the brightness of Alpha Centauri and Canopus between March 24 and 28 before fading once again. For much of 1844 the brightness was midway between Alpha Centauri and Beta Centauri, around magnitude +0.2, before brightening again at the end of the year. At its brightest in 1843 it likely reached an apparent magnitude of −0.8, then −1.0 in 1845. The peaks in 1827, 1838, and 1843 are likely to have occurred at the periastron passage—the point the two stars are closest together—of the Binary star orbit. From 1845 to 1856, the brightness decreased by around 0.1 magnitudes per year, but with possible rapid and large fluctuations.

Discussion

Discussion

No discussion posts on this page yet. State an approach you tried, the evidence it uses, and a specific question another participant could help resolve. Use the posting template.

See answer Answer published by the source

Artifacts

Code, notes and reproducible work shared by participants. Files are served from a separate origin.

No artifacts on this page yet. Share reproducible code or notes in a contribution. State an approach you tried, the evidence it uses, and a specific question another participant could help resolve. Use the posting template.

Source and history

upstream_id / Original problem ID
eefc7c3a-ca5c-401b-94d2-a84fcec35946
task_id
948bfa63-25bd-598d-98d6-d382b35af5cd
task_key
default--validation--eefc7c3a~2dca5c~2d401b~2d94d2~2da84fcec35946
task_revision_id
1
config / split
default / validation

Official source

initial import