PRESS-NEWS.org - Press Release Distribution
PRESS RELEASES DISTRIBUTION

NASA satellites catch 'growth spurt' from newborn protostar

NASA satellites catch 'growth spurt' from newborn protostar
2015-03-24
(Press-News.org) Using data from orbiting observatories, including NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope, and ground-based facilities, an international team of astronomers has discovered an outburst from a star thought to be in the earliest phase of its development. The eruption, scientists say, reveals a sudden accumulation of gas and dust by an exceptionally young protostar known as HOPS 383.

Stars form within collapsing fragments of cold gas clouds. As the cloud contracts under its own gravity, its central region becomes denser and hotter. By the end of this process, the collapsing fragment has transformed into a hot central protostar surrounded by a dusty disk roughly equal in mass, embedded in a dense envelope of gas and dust. Astronomers call this a "Class 0" protostar.

"HOPS 383 is the first outburst we've ever seen from a Class 0 object, and it appears to be the youngest protostellar eruption ever recorded," said William Fischer, a NASA Postdoctoral Program Fellow at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.

The Class 0 phase is short-lived, lasting roughly 150,000 years, and is considered the earliest developmental stage for stars like the sun.

A protostar has not yet developed the energy-generating capabilities of a sun-like star, which fuses hydrogen into helium in its core. Instead, a protostar shines from the heat energy released by its contraction and by the accumulation of material from the disk of gas and dust surrounding it. The disk may one day develop asteroids, comets and planets.

Because these infant suns are thickly swaddled in gas and dust, their visible light cannot escape. But the light warms dust around the protostar, which reradiates the energy in the form of heat detectable by infrared-sensitive instruments on ground-based telescopes and orbiting satellites.

HOPS 383 is located near NGC 1977, a nebula in the constellation Orion and a part of its sprawling star-formation complex. Located about 1,400 light-years away, the region constitutes the most active nearby "star factory" and hosts a treasure trove of young stellar objects still embedded in their natal clouds.

A team led by Thomas Megeath at the University of Toledo in Ohio used Spitzer to identify more than 300 protostars in the Orion complex. A follow-on project using the European Space Agency's Herschel Space Observatory, called the Herschel Orion Protostar Survey (HOPS), studied many of these objects in greater detail.

The eruption of HOPS 383 was first recognized in 2014 by astronomer Emily Safron shortly after her graduation from the University of Toledo. Under the supervision of Megeath and Fischer, she had just completed her senior thesis comparing the decade-old Spitzer Orion survey with 2010 observations from NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) satellite. Using software to analyze the data, Safron had already run through it several times without finding anything new. But with her thesis completed and graduation behind her, she decided to take the extra time to compare images of the "funny objects" by eye.

That's when she noticed HOPS 383's dramatic change. "This beautiful outburst was lurking in our sample the whole time," Safron said.

Safron's catalog of observations included Spitzer data at wavelengths of 3.6, 4.5 and 24 microns and WISE data at 3.4, 4.6 and 22 microns. HOPS 383 is so deeply enshrouded in dust that it wasn't seen at all before the outburst at the shortest Spitzer wavelength, and an oversight in a version of the catalog produced before Safron's involvement masked the increase at the longest wavelengths. As a result, her software saw a rise in brightness in only one wavelength out of three, which failed to meet her criteria for the changes she was hoping to find.

Once they realized what had happened, Safron, Fischer and their colleagues gathered additional Spitzer data, Herschel observations, and images from ground-based infrared telescopes at the Kitt Peak National Observatory in Arizona and the Atacama Pathfinder Experiment in northern Chile. Their findings were published in the Feb. 10 edition of The Astrophysical Journal.

The first hint of brightening appears in Spitzer data from 2006. By 2008, they write, HOPS 383's brightness at a wavelength of 24 microns had increased by 35 times. According to the most recent data available, from 2012, the eruption shows no sign of abating.

"An outburst lasting this long rules out many possibilities, and we think HOPS 383 is best explained by a sudden increase in the amount of gas the protostar is accreting from the disk around it," explained Fischer.

Scientists suspect that instabilities in the disk lead to episodes where large quantities of material flow onto the central protostar. The star develops an extreme hot spot at the impact point, which in turn heats up the disk, and both brighten dramatically.

The team continues to monitor HOPS 383 and has proposed new observations using NASA's Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA), the world's largest flying telescope.

INFORMATION:


[Attachments] See images for this press release:
NASA satellites catch 'growth spurt' from newborn protostar

ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

Are our schools damaging children's eyes?

2015-03-24
Over the last 30 years, short sight, or myopia, has become a global health problem. The most dramatic rise has been in Singapore, Taiwan, China's cities and elsewhere in East Asia. Rates can be as high as 80-90 per cent among children leaving secondary schools in the region. As many as a fifth of them have severe myopia and so are at high risk of eye problems in later life. In Western countries rates are increasing; although not as rapidly as in East Asia. The Myopia Mystery The cause of myopia, and the means to prevent it, are unclear despite more than 150 years of ...

Patients with asymptomatic pancreatic cysts do not need constant surveillance

2015-03-24
Bethesda, MD (March 24, 2015) -- A new guideline from the American Gastroenterological Association (AGA) changes clinical practice by recommending longer surveillance periods for patients with asymptomatic pancreatic cysts and new criteria that limits surgery to those who will receive the most benefit. It is estimated that more than 15 percent of patients who visit a doctor's office or hospital outpatient department will receive an MRI or other type of scan,2 and of those, about 15 percent will have incidental pancreatic cysts. Once detected, these cysts trigger anxiety ...

CV organizations issue recommendations for minimally invasive valve treatments for children, adults

2015-03-24
Washington, DC (March 24, 2015) - As congenital heart disease (CHD) treatment advances, children with these conditions are living into adulthood, and over time, they may need additional treatment. A new expert consensus paper released today by the Society for Cardiovascular Angiography and Interventions (SCAI), American Association for Thoracic Surgery (AATS), American College of Cardiology (ACC), and The Society of Thoracic Surgeons (STS) provides guidance on transcatheter pulmonic valve replacement, or tPVR, for children and adults who were previously treated for CHD. Pulmonary ...

Second Tommy John surgery linked to performance decline, shortened career

Second Tommy John surgery linked to performance decline, shortened career
2015-03-24
DETROIT - Major League Baseball pitchers who underwent a second Tommy John surgery saw their performance decline and their career shortened, according to researchers at Henry Ford Hospital. In a retrospective, case-controlled study, researchers analyzed performance and longevity data of 33 pitchers who had a second surgery following the original elbow reconstruction between 1996 and 2012 and compared them with pitchers of similar age who had no prior Tommy John surgery. Key findings for pitchers after a second surgery: 65 percent returned to pitching at MLB level. On ...

First Nations migration dynamics are shaped by socioeconomic inequalities

2015-03-24
This news release is available in French. Socio-economic inequalities between First Nations communities, and also between these communities and the non-Aboriginal population of Canada, determine the nature, the intensity and the direction of First Nations migration flows. Pursuing educational careers, finding work, and seeking better health and living conditions are the main reasons for First Nations migration. These are the findings of research by Marilyn Amorevieta-Gentil, Robert Bourbeau and Norbert Robitaille, of the University of Montreal, which were presented ...

Why some HPV infections go away and others become cancer

2015-03-24
DURHAM, N.C. -- For people infected with the human papilloma virus (HPV), the likelihood of clearing the infection and avoiding HPV-related cancer may depend less on the body's disease-fighting arsenal than has been generally assumed. A new study finds that the body's ability to defeat the virus may be largely due to unpredictable division patterns in HPV-infected stem cells, rather than the strength of the person's immune response. If the mathematical model behind the findings holds up, it could point to ways of tweaking the way infected cells divide in order to make ...

Study provides academic support for new Steve Jobs portrayal

2015-03-24
It's no surprise that some of the most celebrated leaders in the business world also happen to be self-promoting narcissists. New research from Brigham Young University's Marriott School of Management finds those strong characteristics are not such a bad thing--as long as those leaders temper their narcissism with a little humility now and then. "Just by practicing and displaying elements of humility, one can help disarm, counterbalance, or buffer the more toxic aspects of narcissism," said Bradley Owens, assistant professor of business ethics at BYU. "The outcome ...

Leaders and their followers tick in sync

2015-03-24
Great leaders are often good communicators. In the process of communication, the relationship between leaders and their followers develops spontaneously according to new research from the Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences in Leipzig and the State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning and IDG/McGovern Institute for Brain Research in Beijing. When a member becomes the group leader, the leader's brain activity in the left temporo-parietal junction, known as representing others' mental states, begins to synchronize with that in the ...

New study shows non-invasive imaging tests can detect coronary artery disease long before it strikes

2015-03-24
Adding two non-invasive imaging tests to traditional cardiovascular disease risk factor assessment more precisely predicts a healthy patient's future risk of heart attack, stroke, or premature death, according to a study led by Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and published in the March 24 edition of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology (JACC). "Using imaging tests to detect disease in carotid or coronary arteries before it causes symptoms can better identify healthy individuals at increased risk than our current, traditional risk assessment methods," ...

New insights into survival outcomes of Asian-Americans diagnosed with cancer

2015-03-24
Numerous studies have documented racial differences in deaths from cancer among non-Hispanic whites and African Americans, but little has been known about survival outcomes for Asian Americans who have been diagnosed with cancer, until now. A new study from Quoc-Dien Trinh, MD and colleagues at Brigham and Women's Hospital (BWH) examined cancer patients in eight different Asian American subgroups and found their cancer-specific mortality (CSM) was substantially lower than that of non-Hispanic white patients. The findings are published in the March 20 issue of the Journal ...

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:

New survey finds COVID-19 pandemic changed public’s view of obesity

Searching for life with space dust

Hunting Venus 2.0: Scientists sharpen their sights

New research reveals a potential mechanism for how coffee may reduce the risk of type 2 diabetes

Big firms are failing to reduce unconscious bias against disabled people

Does birth by cesarean section affect children’s academic performance and intelligence?

Can moderate dietary salt restriction help patients with hypertension?

How fisheries threaten seals and sea lions in South America

Does care during pregnancy differ based on patient race in the United States?

Are there sex-based differences in brain development during early childhood?

Boosting the effects of a particular microRNA may benefit patients with cervical cancer

Changing temperatures increase pesticide risk to bees

Research reveals substantial human cost of international COVID-19 travel and border restrictions

TMAC helping businesses prevent pollution

Early career honor for Wang

New animal welfare scoring system could enable better-informed food and farming choices

Science journals update guidelines after study highlights incomplete reporting of research

Study shows ‘obesity paradox’ does not exist: waist-to-height ratio is a better indicator of outcomes in patients with heart failure than BMI

The devil is in the details: Re-imagining fertilizer precursor synthesis

Unmasking the secret of broadly neutralising COVID-19 therapeutic antibodies

BetaLife and A*STAR Collaborate to develop next generation cell-based therapy for diabetes treatment

Endangered vulture returns to Bulgaria after being extinct for 36 years

Nine in 10 women enter pregnancy with at least one indicator that risks baby’s health

CABBI/GLBRC team explores leaf microbiome in perennial bioenergy crops

Turn off porch light to aid caterpillars — and safeguard backyard ecosystems

Anne Kornahrens, Hertz Foundation Director of Community, selected as delegate to International Younger Chemists Network Assembly

Novel drug makes mice skinny even on sugary, fatty diet

Department of Energy announces $150 million for research on the science foundations for Energy Earthshots

Turn up your favorite song to improve medication efficacy

Local manure regulations can help reduce water pollution from dairy farms

[Press-News.org] NASA satellites catch 'growth spurt' from newborn protostar