One of the most notable baby stars in the galaxy, T Tauri, could be about to vanish from sight for decades as a thick, obscuring disk of gas and dust marauds in front of it.
T Tauri, which is located 471 light-years away in the constellation of Taurus, the Bull, is the namesake of an entire class of protostars that can fluctuate unpredictably in brightness. Astronomers denote variable stars by giving them a letter, and in this case T Tauri was the 20th variable star to be found in Taurus, while T being is 20th letter of the alphabet. Above 26, a variable star gets two letters. T Tauri is actually a triple star system, all three members of which are protostars that are still growing as they capture gas. As these stars grow, they contract, and it is the gravitational energy of this contraction that makes them shine — their cores are not yet hot enough to ignite nuclear fusion, which is how standard stars fuel their shine.
