AI Identifies Binary Star System With a Red Giant in the Milky Way
Russian researchers have used artificial intelligence to discover a new symbiotic X-ray system in the Milky Way, the Space Research Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences has announced.
The object, designated J1633, lies in the direction of the Norma spiral arm. It is a pair of interacting stars, one of which has been identified as a red giant.
The researchers used machine-learning algorithms to search for the system. They analyzed the catalog from the European Space Agency’s XMM-Newton space observatory and identified the most promising candidates among numerous X-ray sources. This allowed the astronomers to focus on the objects most worthy of further study.
The J1633 system stood out. It emits X-ray pulses with a period of 1,552 seconds, or approximately once every 26 minutes. Observations with the Mikhail Pavlinsky ART-XC telescope confirmed the pulsations and enabled a more detailed study of the emission. The observations also established that one of the stars in the system is indeed a red giant.
The researchers estimate that around 200 such objects may exist in the Milky Way. AI helps astronomers search for them in vast datasets.
