Abu Dhabi, UAE – The Al Khatim Astronomical Observatory of the International Astronomy Center in Abu Dhabi succeeded, on Monday evening, in monitoring and documenting a rare astronomical phenomenon. One of the stars disappeared behind the dwarf planet Haumea for 38 seconds. In a scientific event known astronomically as “veiling”, as part of a global monitoring campaign in which specialized international observatories participated.
Engineer Mohamed Shawkat Odeh, Director of the International Astronomy Center, said that the importance of this occultation is due to the fact that the dwarf planet Haumea. Its orbit lies behind the planet Neptune, near the dwarf planet Pluto, and it is considered a unique astronomical object because it has two moons and rings surrounding it. This makes the occultation phenomenon a rare scientific opportunity to study its diameter, orbit, and structure, in addition to analyzing its atmosphere, if any. Whether through precise timing of occultation or through spectroscopy.
He pointed out that the monitoring results revealed two prominent scientific observations. The first involved recording a sudden disappearance of the star about 14 seconds before the main occultation. This is likely caused by the rings of Haumea or one of its moons. The hypothesis of the episodes is likely due to the repetition of the same decline about 11 seconds after the end of the main occultation.
He explained that the attached photogram clearly showed the sudden decrease in the star’s brightness before the main occultation, and then the decrease again after its appearance. While the brightness curves of other reference stars remained stable throughout the observation process, which enhances the accuracy of the recorded results.
Awda pointed out that these results may open the door to new scientific possibilities. Among them is that the actual diameter of the dwarf planet is smaller than previous estimates, or that the occultation path was skewed north or south from what was expected. Stressing that it is still too early to issue any final conclusions before reviewing the results of other observatories participating in the campaign.
He stated that the occulted star was originally a binary star accompanied by a faint star, and the location of this companion is still not precisely determined. Its presence north of the main star would have made its occultation visible from Europe. While his appearance south would have made him a viewer from South Africa. It is a type of monitoring that requires taking several images per second, but the Arab region did not fall within the scope of this sub-occurrence.
