Low-frequency gravity waves in blue supergiants

A snapshot from a hydrodynamical simulation of the interior of a star three times as heavy as our Sun, which shows waves generated by turbulent core convection and propagating throughout the star's interior.

Advertised on

05/23/2019

Authors

D. M. Bowman

S. Brussens

M.G. Pedersen

C. Johnston

C. Aerts

B. Buysschaert

M. Michielsen

A. Tkachenko

T.M. Rogers

P.V.F. Edelman

R.P. Ratnasingam

Sergio

Simón Díaz

Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC)

N. Castro

E. Moravveji

B.J.S. Pope

T.R. White

P. De Cat

References

2019 Nature Astronomy 3 760

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 accumulate with stellar age, which is particularly pertinent for the blue supergiant phase. Stellar oscillations represent a unique method of probing stellar interiors, yet inference for blue supergiants is hampered by a dearth of observed pulsation modes. Here we report the detection of diverse variability in blue supergiants using the K2 and TESS space missions. The discovery of pulsation modes or an entire spectrum of low-frequency gravity waves in these stars allow us to map the evolution of hot massive stars towards the ends of their lives. Future asteroseismic modelling will provide constraints on ages, core masses, interior mixing, rotation and angular momentum transport. The discovery of variability in blue supergiants is a step towards a data-driven empirical calibration of theoretical evolution models for the most massive stars in the Universe.

It may interest you

Press release

The Solar System Group at the IAC discovers a new asteroid near the Earth

The discovery of 2024 NP2 took place during the night of July 4th in images taken during the commissioning of the TST, a new telescope recently installed at the Teide Observatory. On July 4th the first regular observations were made in the commissioning of the Transient Survey Telescope (TST), an astronomical installation produced by a public-private collaboration between the IAC and the Canary company Light Bridges , at the Teide Observatory (Tenerife). The TST is a robotic telescope with a wide field. With a 1 metre telescope and a camera using an sCMOS detector at its prime focus, it can

Advertised on

09/03/2024 - 18:34
Read more
Photomontage

The light pollution in Macaronesia is on the increase

The results obtained from the over two hundred photometers put in place by the Interreg EELabs project during the past four years have been used to evaluated the impact of artificial night lighting on the night-time ecosystems of the achipelagos, especially on sea birds, but also to make the local people aware of this type of contamination. In Macaronesia (the collective name for the Atlantic Islands comprising the Azores, Madeira, the Canaries and Cape Verde), natural night-time darkness is preservedonly in highly isolated natural reserves, such as the islands of Corvo and Graciosa (the

Advertised on

02/07/2024 - 09:30
Read more
Press release

Observers measure how Andromeda’s central black hole is fed

A team of scientists led by the Observatory of Munich University and the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias have obtained direct visualization of the process of feeding the supermassive black hole at the centre of the Andromeda galaxy. The study reveals the existence of long filamentary structures of gas and dust which move in a spiral starting at a distance from the black hole and ending up at the black hole itself. The results, which have been published in the Astrophysical Journal, were obtained using images from the Hubble and Spitzer space telescopes. The Andromeda Galaxy, which is

Advertised on

01/15/2024 - 10:41
Read more