Search Publications
Uncovering the birth of the Milky Way through accurate stellar ages with Gaia
Ruiz-Lara, Tomás; Hill, Vanessa; Monelli, Matteo +4 more
Knowledge of the ages of the stars formed over a galaxy's lifetime is fundamental to an understanding of its formation and evolution. However, stellar ages are difficult to obtain since they cannot be measured from observations, but require comparison with stellar models1. Alternatively, age distributions can be derived by applying the …
Kinematic detection of a planet carving a gap in a protoplanetary disk
Pinte, C.; Ménard, F.; Duchêne, G. +10 more
We still do not understand how planets form or why extrasolar planetary systems are so different from our own Solar System. However, the past few years have dramatically changed our view of the disks of gas and dust around young stars. Observations with the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array and extreme adaptive-optics systems have revea…
Low-frequency gravity waves in blue supergiants revealed by high-precision space photometry
Bowman, Dominic M.; Pope, Benjamin J. S.; White, Timothy R. +14 more
Almost all massive stars explode as supernovae and form a black hole or neutron star. The remnant mass and the impact of the chemical yield on subsequent star formation and galactic evolution strongly depend on the internal physics of the progenitor star, which is currently not well understood. The theoretical uncertainties of stellar interiors ac…
The ice composition in the disk around V883 Ori revealed by its stellar outburst
Johnstone, Doug; Lee, Jeong-Eun; Aikawa, Yuri +6 more
Complex organic molecules (COMs), which are the seeds of prebiotic material and precursors of amino acids and sugars, form in the icy mantles of circumstellar dust grains1 but cannot be detected remotely unless they are heated and released to the gas phase. Around solar-mass stars, water and COMs only sublimate in the inner few uc(au) o…
A super-Earth and two sub-Neptunes transiting the nearby and quiet M dwarf TOI-270
Vanderburg, Andrew; Latham, David W.; Quinn, Samuel N. +57 more
One of the primary goals of exoplanetary science is to detect small, temperate planets passing (transiting) in front of bright and quiet host stars. This enables the characterization of planetary sizes, orbits, bulk compositions, atmospheres and formation histories. These studies are facilitated by small and cool M dwarf host stars. Here we report…
Identification of the long stellar stream of the prototypical massive globular cluster ω Centauri
Bianchini, Paolo; Martin, Nicolas; Malhan, Khyati +2 more
Omega Centauri (ω Cen) is the Milky Way's most massive globular cluster, and has long been suspected of being the remnant core of an accreted dwarf galaxy. If this scenario is correct, ω Cen should be tidally limited and tidal debris should be spread along its orbit. Here we use N-body simulations to show that the recently discovered `Fimbulthul' …
A three-dimensional map of the hot Local Bubble using diffuse interstellar bands
Javadi, Atefeh; van Loon, Jacco Th.; Khosroshahi, Habib G. +2 more
The Solar System is located within a low-density cavity known as the Local Bubble1-3, which appears to be filled with an X-ray-emitting gas at a temperature of 106 K (ref. 4). Such conditions are too harsh for typical interstellar atoms and molecules to survive2,3. The diffuse interstellar bands (DIBs), …
Extended main sequence turn-off originating from a broad range of stellar rotational velocities
Lim, Beomdu; Park, Byeong-Gon; Nazé, Yaël +3 more
Star clusters have long been considered to comprise a simple stellar population, but this paradigm is being challenged, since in addition to multiple populations in Galactic globular clusters1, a number of younger star clusters exhibit a significant colour spread at the main sequence turn-off2-9. A sequential evolution of mul…
Accurate mass and radius determinations of a cool subdwarf in an eclipsing binary
Rebassa-Mansergas, Alberto; Parsons, Steven G.; Torres, Santiago +4 more
Cool subdwarfs are metal-poor low-mass stars that formed during the early stages of the evolution of our Galaxy. Because they are relatively rare in the vicinity of the Sun, we know of few cool subdwarfs in the solar neighbourhood, and none for which both the mass and the radius are accurately determined. This hampers our understanding of stars at…
A high-mass planetary nebula in a Galactic open cluster
Zijlstra, A. A.; Parker, Q. A.; Fragkou, V. +2 more
Planetary nebulae are the ionized ejected envelopes surrounding the remnant cores of dying stars. Theory predicts that main-sequence stars of one to about eight solar masses may eventually form planetary nebulae. Until now, this has not been confirmed at the higher end of the mass range. Here we report that the planetary nebula BMP J1613-5406 is a…