New Delhi, June 18: Astronomers have discovered the flattest star yet, with a radius at least 50 per cent larger at its equator than at its poles. Armando Domiciano de Souza of the University Laboratory of Astrophysics in nice and his colleagues used the very large telescope interferometer at the European southern observatory in Chile to observe the fast-spinning star Achernar in the southern constellation of Eridanus. Armando Domiciano de Souza of the University Laboratory of Astrophysics in nice and his colleagues used the very large telescope interferometer at the European southern observatory in Chile to observe the fast-spinning star Achernar in the southern constellation of Eridanus. Astrophysicists must now explain how the rogue star is held together, since it violates accepted models of stellar mass distribution according to the report in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics.
Bureau Report