New satellite data like an ultrasound for baby stars

An international team of researchers have been monitoring the "heartbeats" of baby stars to test theories of how the Sun was born 4.5 billion years ago

2014-07-03

(Press-News.org) An international team of researchers have been monitoring the "heartbeats" of baby stars to test theories of how the Sun was born 4.5 billion years ago.

In a paper published in Science magazine today, the team of 20 scientists describes how data from two space telescopes – the Canadian Space Agency's MOST satellite and the French CoRoT mission – have unveiled the internal structures and ages of young stars before they've even emerged as full-fledged stars.

"Think of it as ultrasound of stellar embryos," explains University of British Professor Jaymie Matthews, MOST Mission Scientist and a co-author of the study. "Stars can vibrate due to sound waves bouncing inside. We detect the sound vibrations across the vacuum of space by the subtle changes in stellar brightness. Then we translate the frequencies of those vibrations into models of the structures of those stars' hidden interiors."

Dr. Konstanze Zwintz, from the KU Leuven Institute of Astronomy in Belgium and lead author of the study, calls this technique of probing protostars with sound waves "echography." Astronomers are using measurements of this 'heartbeat' as a virtual time machine to explore the life stages of a star.

The study found that when an emerging star is closer to the initial stage of its formation (as in the first trimester of a human pregnancy), it pulsates slowly. When it gets closer to igniting thermonuclear fusion in its core to become a true star (like the moment of human birth), it pulsates ever faster. And when the hydrogen fuel at the core of a star is exhausted, it enters the last stages of its life.

Watching soon-to-be-stars in young clusters like NGC 2264, the focus of the study, is like watching our Sun during its birth, says Matthews.

MOST (Microvariability & Oscillations of STars) is a Canadian Space Agency (CSA) mission launched in 2003 to perform asteroseismology and study planets beyond the Solar System. The telescope was designed and largely built at UBC and is operated there under the supervision of Prof. Matthews.

INFORMATION: Multimedia assets:

Animated model of the pre-life story of a star like the Sun, spanning about 10 million years from conception to birth. The animation can be downloaded from here:

http://www.ster.kuleuven.be/~konstanze/PreMS-Animation.mp4

A composite still image of the animation can be downloaded from here: http://www.ster.kuleuven.be/~konstanze/Figure_preMS_300dpi.jpg

ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

A young star's age can be gleamed from nothing but sound waves

2014-07-03

VIDEO: In a young region like the so-called Christmas Tree Cluster, stars are still in the process of forming. A star is 'born' once it becomes optically visible (bottom right). During... Click here for more information. Determining the age of stars has long been a challenge for astronomers. In experiments published in the journal Science, researchers at KU Leuven's Institute for Astronomy show that 'infant' stars can be distinguished from 'adolescent' stars by measuring the acoustic ...

Sweet genes

2014-07-03

Edmonton, July 3, 2014 – A research team at the Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry at the University of Alberta have discovered a new way by which metabolism is linked to the regulation of DNA, the basis of our genetic code. The findings may have important implications for the understanding of many common diseases, including cancer. The DNA wraps around specialized proteins called histones in the cell's nucleus. Normally, histones keep the DNA tightly packaged, preventing the expression of genes and the replication of DNA, which are required for cell growth and division. ...

NASA sees rainfall in newborn Tropical Depression 8W

2014-07-03

Powerful thunderstorms in some areas of newborn Tropical Depression 08W in the Northwestern Pacific Ocean were dropping heavy rainfall on July 3 as NASA's Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) satellite passed overhead. The eighth depression of the Northwestern Pacific Ocean season formed on July 3 at 0900 UTC (5 a.m. EDT). It was located near 10.0 north latitude and 144.3 east longitude about 240 nautical miles south of Andersen Air Force Base, Guam. Tropical Depression 08W or TD08W had maximum sustained winds near 30 knots (34.5 mph/55.5 kph) and it was moving ...

Safer, cheaper building blocks for future anti-HIV and cancer drugs

2014-07-03

A team of researchers from KU Leuven, in Belgium, has developed an economical, reliable and heavy metal-free chemical reaction that yields fully functional 1,2,3-triazoles. Triazoles are chemical compounds that can be used as building blocks for more complex chemical compounds, including pharmaceutical drugs. Leveraging the compound's surprisingly stable structure, drug developers have successfully used 1,2,3-triazoles as building blocks in various anti-HIV, anti-cancer and anti-bacterial drugs. But efforts to synthesize the compound have been hampered by one serious ...

Tropical Storm Douglas weakening in the eastern Pacific

2014-07-03

Tropical Storm Douglas is on a weakening trend, according to the National Hurricane Center, and satellite imagery showed that the storm appeared more elongated on July 3. NOAA's Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite or GOES-West satellite captured visible data on Douglas just after sunrise on July 3 at 13:15 UTC (9:15 a.m. EDT). The data from GOES-West was made into an image at NASA/NOAA's GOES Project at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. Forecaster Stewart at the National Hurricane Center cited that Douglas' thunderstorm activity had ...

Rethinking the reef

2014-07-03

A new study by biologists at San Diego State University and Scripps Institution of Oceanography shows that inhabited coral islands that engage in commercial fishing dramatically alter their nearby reef ecosystems, disturbing the microbes, corals, algae and fish that call the reef home. The study's lead author, Linda Wegley Kelly, is a postdoctoral scholar in the lab of SDSU virologist Forest Rohwer. For the study, she looked at seawater samples collected from the surfaces of reefs surrounding all 11 of the Line Islands, a chain of atolls in the central Pacific Ocean. ...

Fruit fly immunity fails with fungus after (space)flight

2014-07-03

Before you swat away the next fruit fly, consider instead just how similar its biological complexities are to our own. In a study published in PLOS ONE, researchers led by Deborah Kimbrell, Ph.D., at the University of California, Davis (UC Davis) and their collaborators, studied how microorganisms may alter fruit flies' immunity in space and in hypergravity, or increased gravity. The article is titled "Toll Mediated Infection Response Is Altered by Gravity and Spaceflight in Drosophila." This study suggests that having normal gravity or hypergravity on the space station ...

Drug shows promise for effectively treating metabolic syndrome

2014-07-03

(SALT LAKE CITY)—University of Utah researchers have discovered that an enzyme involved in intracellular signaling plays a crucial role in developing metabolic syndrome, a finding that has a U of U spinoff company developing a drug to potentially treat the condition. The researchers, led by Jared Rutter, Ph.D., professor of biochemistry, hope to begin human clinical trials of a drug in the next couple of years. "The approved drug therapies do not treat or prevent this condition in most people," says Rutter, senior author of a study describing the research published ...

With 'ribbons' of graphene, width matters

2014-07-03

MILWAUKEE – Using graphene ribbons of unimaginably small widths – just several atoms across – a group of researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (UWM) has found a novel way to "tune" the wonder material, causing the extremely efficient conductor of electricity to act as a semiconductor. In principle, their method for producing these narrow ribbons – at a width roughly equal to the diameter of a strand of human DNA – and manipulating the ribbons' electrical conductivity could be used to produce nano-devices. Graphene, a one-atom-thick sheet of carbon atoms, ...

Bone marrow fat tissue secretes hormone that helps body stay healthy

2014-07-03

ANN ARBOR, Mich. — It has been known for its flavorful addition to soups and as a delicacy for dogs but bone marrow fat may also have untapped health benefits, new research finds. A University of Michigan-led study shows that the fat tissue in bone marrow is a significant source of the hormone adiponectin, which helps maintain insulin sensitivity, break down fat, and has been linked to decreased risk of cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and obesity-associated cancers. The findings appear in today's online-ahead-of-print issue of Cell Metabolism. Bone marrow adipose ...

New satellite data like an ultrasound for baby stars

ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES: