What Defines a Galaxy?
“A galaxy is a gravitationally bound collection of stars whose properties cannot be explained by a combination of baryons and Newton’s laws of gravity.” (Willman & Strader, http://arxiv.org/abs/1203.2608)
Dust, cooling, and early Universe star formation
An extremely metal-poor star, which was first discussed on astrobites by Anna in September 2011, may be evidence that dust-induced fragmentation was the catalyst for the change from the top-heavy Initial Mass Function (IMF) of the first stars to the steep IMF we observe today.
LOFAR: science at the longest wavelengths
The LOFAR low-frequency radio interferometer is poised to make exciting discoveries in transient searches, high-energy astrophysics, and cosmology.
Happy Thanksgiving, Early Universe, now can you please pass the metals?
Thank a massive star today for synthesizing your delicious turkey (or tofurkey) meal.
It’s Not Easy Being Blue
Blue stragglers are stars that, given their mass, should have already evolved beyond the main sequence, and their existence has been a mystery to astronomers for decades. These stars must somehow have gained mass during their main sequence lifetimes; stellar collisions and mass transfer were proposed as the most likely mechanisms that could cause this to happen. A unique combination of observations, simulations, and statistical analysis was recently used to constrain their formation process.