Capturing neutrons in the thin disk
Elements heavier than iron are forged by neutron-capture processes. How are they distributed in the Galaxy?
Mass Loss in Dying Stars
By the time a star becomes a white dwarf, much of its mass will have been lost. When does this mass loss occur and what drives it? Read today’s astrobite to find out.
Living Under a Dying Star
When stars move on to their final stages of life, the habitable zone around them moves outward, putting planets like Jupiter and Saturn into the habitable zone. Do these outer planets have enough time to develop life before the star dies?
The Milky Way’s Fossil Record: Where did our Star-Stuff Come From?
The authors use measurements of heavy element abundances to study the history of how and when the Milky Way became enriched in heavy elements. Specifically, they are concerned with elements formed through slow and fast neutron capture.
Over My Dead Body: Keeping Dead Galaxies from Forming New Stars
The authors of this paper pursued a mechanism which could possibly keep dead galaxies from forming new stars: mass ejected from AGB stars moving through the galaxy could heat the ambient gas.
Real-Time Stellar Evolution
Sometimes, stellar evolution happens on more human timescales—tens to hundreds of years rather than millions or billions.