In 300 light-years from us, CW Leonis lives in the constellation of Leo - a red giant star that surpasses our size by 500 times. It evolves and produces a huge amount of dust, forming a cloud that exceeds the size of the solar system. For many years, it tracked, but only now found a small red dwarf.
From 1994-2000 Professor Richard Smart led observations from the Torino Observatory. He was interested in unexplained fluctuations in stellar motion. The last observation displayed a vortex pattern due to an invisible satellite star. The importance lies in the fact that the analysis allows to establish significant restrictions on the nature of the findings. This applies to mass, distance and orbital path. Most likely, this is a massive star, slightly brighter than the Sun, whose period covers 100 years.
It can be considered a breakthrough for the one-meter terrestrial telescope. The study of such objects will help to better follow the evolutionary path into beautiful and complex planetary nebulae.
