Latest Main sequence Stories

Using radio and infrared telescopes, astronomers have obtained a first tantalizing look at a crucial early stage in star formation. The new observations promise to help scientists understand the early stages of a sequence of events through which a giant cloud of gas and dust collapses into dense cores that, in turn, form new stars. The scientists studied a giant cloud about 770 light-years from Earth in the constellation Perseus. They used the European Space Agency's Herschel Space...

Researchers at the University of Warwick have found a unique feuding double white dwarf star system where each star appears to have been stripped down to just its helium.We know of just over 50 close double white dwarfs but this was only the second ever eclipsing close white dwarf pair to be found. The University of Warwick astronomers Steven Parsons and Professor Tom Marsh were able to use the fact that the stars eclipse each other when seen from Earth to make particularly detailed...

Michele Johnson, Public Affairs Officer, Kepler Mission, Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif. We are entering a golden era for "stellar physics" "“ a term coined to describe research about the formation, evolution, interior and the atmospheres of stars. Thanks to a partnership forged among stellar astrophysics, scientists and NASA's Kepler Mission, a goldmine of data is now available to support the world's efforts to detect planets in the habitable zone around other...

White dwarfs are dead stars that pack a Sun's-worth of matter into an Earth-sized ball. Astronomers have just discovered an amazing pair of white dwarfs whirling around each other once every 39 minutes. This is the shortest-period pair of white dwarfs now known. Moreover, in a few million years they will collide and merge to create a single star."These stars have already lived a full life. When they merge, they'll essentially be 'reborn' and enjoy a second life," said Smithsonian astronomer...

A team of astronomers led by graduate student Naslim and her supervisor Dr Simon Jeffery from Armagh Observatory in Northern Ireland has found what at first sight appears to be the most zirconium-rich star ever discovered. Zirconium, the material used by jewelers to make false diamonds, glitters in clouds above the star's surface. The scientists publish their results in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. The team made the discovery while looking for chemical clues...

Using a combination of instruments on ESO's Very Large Telescope, a UK-led international team of astronomers have discovered the most massive stars to date, one which at birth had more than 300 times the mass of the Sun, twice as much as the currently accepted limit. The existence of these monsters "” millions of times more luminous than the Sun, losing mass through very powerful winds "” may provide an answer to the question "how massive can stars be?" The new results appear in a paper...

Astrophysicists at UC Santa Barbara are the first scientists to identify two white dwarf stars in an eclipsing binary system, allowing for the first direct radius measurement of a rare white dwarf composed of pure helium. The results will be published in the Astrophysical Journal Letters. These observations are the first to confirm a theory about a certain type of white dwarf star.The story began with observations by Justin Steinfadt, a UCSB physics graduate student who has been monitoring...

Researchers of the University of Granada have conducted the most complete worldwide analysis of the chemical composition and evolutionary state of a spectral type R carbon star. The presence of carbon is essential for the possible development of life in the Universe, and therefore explaining its origin is of vital importance. What are the peculiar type-R stars made? Where does the carbon present in their shell come from? These are the questions to be solved by a research work conducted by...

Astrophysicists find 2 Earth-sized bodies with oxygen rich atmospheres - only snag is they're stars not planetsAstrophysicists at the University of Warwick and Kiel University have discovered two earth sized bodies with oxygen rich atmospheres "“ however there is a bit of a disappointing snag for anyone looking for a potential home for alien life, or even a future home for ourselves, as they are not planets but are actually two unusual white dwarf stars.The two white dwarf stars SDSS...

Twenty-four unusual stars, 18 of them newly discovered, have been observed in new Hubble telescope images. The stars are white dwarfs, a common type of dead star, but they are odd because they are made of helium rather than the usual carbon and oxygen. This is the first extensive sequence of helium-core white dwarfs to be observed in a globular cluster, a dense swarm of some of the oldest stars in our galaxy.A study, accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journal, suggests that these...