For the first time, astronomers mapped the turbulent motions of gas on a distant star.
Key Takeaways:
- Astronomers have captured the sharpest-ever image of a star’s surface and atmosphere.
- The breakthrough was made using the Very Large Telescope Interferometer (VLTI) in Chile.
- Antares, a red supergiant 600 light-years away, was the subject of this detailed mapping.
- The study helps answer a 50-year-old mystery about how massive stars shed material so quickly.
- This technique could be used to study other stars, opening a new era in stellar research.
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For the first time, astronomers have created the most detailed image of a star’s surface and atmosphere, providing new insights into the structure and behavior of distant stars. Using the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope Interferometer (VLTI) in Chile, a team led by Keiichi Ohnaka successfully mapped the turbulent gas motions on Antares, a red supergiant located over 600 light-years from Earth.
Unlocking the Secrets of Antares
Antares is a massive red supergiant, boasting 12 times the mass of our Sun and a diameter about 700 times larger. Over its lifetime, the star has shed three solar masses of material, a process that has puzzled astronomers for decades. To understand these mass-loss mechanisms, Ohnaka’s team used the VLTI’s ability to combine light from up to four telescopes, creating a virtual telescope with a resolution equivalent to a single mirror 200 meters across.
This groundbreaking method allowed them to measure the speed of gas movements across Antares’ entire surface. By combining data from another instrument, AMBER, which captured images in multiple infrared wavelengths, they created the first-ever velocity map of a star outside our solar system. This detailed observation provides crucial data on how massive stars like Antares lose mass so rapidly in their final evolutionary stages.
A New Era in Stellar Observations
The success of this technique marks a turning point in our ability to study distant stars in unprecedented detail. Ohnaka emphasized that VLTI is currently the only facility capable of directly measuring gas movements in a star’s extended atmosphere. The next challenge is identifying the forces driving these turbulent motions.
The findings not only bring us closer to solving a long-standing mystery about stellar mass loss but also open new possibilities for studying the atmospheres of different types of stars. This innovative approach could provide deeper insights into the life cycles of massive stars and their impact on the surrounding universe.
