Even though the Sun and other stars are constantly shining down on us, there’s a lot about them that we still don’t understand.
In today’s astrobite, we explore a new approach for learning about one stellar mystery in particular: the magnetic fields of Sun-like stars.
Last week, over 1400 astronomers met at the European Week of Astronomy and Space Sciences in Liverpool. From observations of high-redshift galaxies, to simulations of the universe and starquakes, we give you an eclectic mixture of highlights of the week.
Professor Lars Bildsten understand the values of change — stellar change, that is. Read more about his research and career before his keynote at #AAS231!
The light from a star is not constant, it varies as the layers of hot material move back and forth, clump and disperse. Most of these vibrations are visible, detectable, and well understood. But some bizarre new vibration is happening in stars, for which we have no clear path to an explanation.
Two attempts to measure the masses of retired A-type stars give two different results.
Measuring stellar ages is difficult, so sometimes we need to resort to using indirect estimates. In today’s paper, we will see how to calibrate a cosmic clock for cool stars and, as a bonus, discover that the activity of these stars may decline faster than we previously thought.