Giant stars undergo dramatic weight loss program
Date:
April 14, 2022
Source:
University of Sydney
Summary:
Astronomers have found a slimmer type of red giant star for the
first time. These stars have undergone dramatic weight loss,
possibly due to a greedy companion. The discovery is an important
step forward to understanding the life of stars in the Milky Way --
our closest stellar neighbors.
FULL STORY ========================================================================== Astronomers at the University of Sydney have found a slimmer type of red
giant star for the first time. These stars have undergone dramatic weight
loss, possibly due to the presence a greedy neighbour. Published in Nature Astronomy, the discovery is an important step forward to understanding
the life of stars in the Milky Way -- our closest stellar neighbours.
========================================================================== There are millions of 'red giant' stars found in our galaxy. These
cool and luminous objects are what our Sun will become in four billion
years. For some time, astronomers have predicted the existence of slimmer
red giants. After finding a smattering of them, the University of Sydney
team can finally confirm their existence.
"It's like finding Waldo," said lead author, PhD candidate Mr Yaguang Li
from the University of Sydney. "We were extremely lucky to find about
40 slimmer red giants, hidden in a sea of normal ones. The slimmer
red giants are either smaller in size or less massive than normal red
giants." How and why did they slim down? Most stars in the sky are
in binary systems - - two stars that are gravitationally bound to each
other. When the stars in close binaries expand, as stars do as they age,
some material can reach the gravitational sphere of their companion and
be sucked away. "In the case of relatively tiny red giants, we think a companion could possibly be present," Mr Li said.
An intragalactic treasure hunt The team analysed archival data from NASA's Kepler space telescope. From 2009 to 2013, the telescope continuously
recorded brightness variations on tens of thousands of red giants. Using
this incredibly accurate and large dataset, the team conducted a thorough census of this stellar population, providing the groundwork for spotting
any outliers.
==========================================================================
Two types of unusual stars were revealed: very low-mass red giants,
and underluminous (dimmer) red giants.
The very low-mass stars weigh only 0.5 to 0.7 solar mass -- around half
the weight of our Sun. If the very low-mass stars had not suddenly lost
weight, their masses would indicate they were older than the age of the Universe -- an impossibility.
"So, when we first obtained the masses of these stars, we thought there
was something wrong with the measurement," Mr Li said. "But it turns out
there wasn't." The underluminous stars, on the other hand, have normal
masses, ranging from 0.8 to 2.0 solar mass. "However, they are much less 'giant' than we expect," said study co-author, Dr Simon Murphy from
the University of Southern Queensland. "They've slimmed down somewhat
and because they're smaller, they're also fainter, hence 'underluminous' compared to normal red giants." Only seven such underluminous stars were found, and the authors suspect many more are hiding in the sample. "The
problem is that most of them are very good at blending in. It was a real treasure hunt to find them," Dr Murphy said.
========================================================================== These unusual data points could not be explained by simple expectations
from stellar evolution. This led the researchers to conclude that another mechanism must be at work, forcing these stars to undergo dramatic weight
loss: theft of mass by nearby stars.
Stellar population census The researchers relied on asteroseismology --
the study of stellar vibrations - - to determine the properties of the
red giants.
Traditional methods to study a star are limited to their surface
properties, for example, surface temperature and luminosity. By contrast, asteroseismology, which uses sound waves, probes beneath this. "The
waves penetrate the stellar interior, giving us rich information on
another dimension," Mr Li said.
The researchers could precisely determine stars' evolutionary stages,
masses, and sizes with this method. And when they looked at the
distributions of these properties, something unusual was immediately
noticed: some stars have tiny masses or sizes.
"It is highly unusual for a PhD student to make such an important
discovery," said Professor Tim Bedding, Mr Li's academic supervisor. "By sifting carefully through data from NASA's Kepler space telescope,
Yaguang spotted something that everyone else had missed."
========================================================================== Story Source: Materials provided by University_of_Sydney. Note: Content
may be edited for style and length.
========================================================================== Journal Reference:
1. Yaguang Li, Timothy R. Bedding, Simon J. Murphy, Dennis Stello,
Yifan
Chen, Daniel Huber, Meridith Joyce, Dion Marks, Xianfei
Zhang, Shaolan Bi, Isabel L. Colman, Michael R. Hayden,
Daniel R. Hey, Gang Li, Benjamin T. Montet, Sanjib Sharma,
Yaqian Wu. Discovery of post-mass-transfer helium-burning red
giants using asteroseismology. Nature Astronomy, 2022; DOI:
10.1038/s41550-022-01648-5 ==========================================================================
Link to news story:
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/04/220414125101.htm
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