Highlighting AAS Chambliss Contestants
The latest science from a few early-career researchers.
The merger of two castaways
Recently, several supernovae have been observed that do not fit in any of the known categories. These Calcium-rich supernovae are challenging to explain, but in this astrobite you read that they are likely the result of an expelled merger.
The Formation of Wide Binaries
Most stars—including Polaris, Sirius, and those in Orion’s Belt—actually hide multiple stars. Some of these stars are on orbits so wide that they may no longer be gravitationally bound. Why?
Globular clusters as gravitational wave factories
The dense environments in the center of globular clusters lead to an abundance of binary black hole mergers, potentially detectable by LIGO.
Brilliant Binaries: Explaining Reionisation
Could binary stars help explain one of the big unsolved problems in the early universe?
Pursuing eternal youth: stellar cannibalism in the wilds of our galaxy
Recent surveys of the sky showed the presence of stars that seem to be too young for the population that they belong to. In today’s bite, we will see that cannibalism between two very close stars could be a viable way to produce these curious objects.