How to Slow Down a Star
Young massive stars have a variety of different rotation rates, but what sets these initial speeds? In this paper, the authors investigate whether magnetic fields could be the answer.
Protostellar outflows: a key ingredient to low-mass star formation
The first simulations of low-mass star formation on parsec scales to include protostellar feedback successfully reproduce observed mass functions, luminosities, and clustering properties.
Exoplanets are like cockroaches
Today at the “Extraordinary Exoplanets” press release (which could righty be called “Extreme Exoplanets”), there were three very interesting and very distinct discoveries announced. William Welsh announced Kepler-34b and Kepler-35b, two new circumbinary planets from the Kepler team. John Johnson and Phil Muirhead presented three new sub-Earth sized planets orbiting an M dwarf. Finally, Erik Mamajek showed us the first ever transit of an extrasolar “ring” system.
Finding the Helium Flash
Just as seismologists determine the structure of the Earth through surface vibrations, so asteroseismologists do the same for stars
Snapshots of the Kepler Science Conference
The First Kepler Science Conference is occurring this week at NASA Ames. Check out this summary of the conference to learn about the exciting results from the Kepler mission.
Identifying Gamma-Ray Burst Progenitors
Using a clever technique, the authors identify a sub-population of rotating Wolf-Rayet stars.