Scientists Address Star Spin Mystery

Scientists Address Star Spin Mystery

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Astronomers can measure how fast stars spin by observing “starquakes”—seismic tremors that are the equivalent of earthquakes on our earth. Yet these observations have posed a puzzle mainly because lots of stars feel to be spinning slower than they should really be. In a new examine, researchers modeled how a magnetic field could develop in the interior levels of a star, dragging its rotation down.

Many stars’ cores agreement at some stage, specially toward the finishes of their lives when they have ceased fusing hydrogen in their facilities. Typically this contraction would velocity up the star’s spin, just as figure skaters will twirl faster when they pull their arms in. Concentrating more mass in a scaled-down space will drive an item to pace up to maintain angular momentum.

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Graphic visualizes the analogy of a spinning star core increasing speed as it gets smaller to a figure skater twirling faster as she pulls her arms in.

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Credit history: Lucy Studying-Ikkanda
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But the actual spin rate of lots of stars is slower than theory predicts, significantly in aged stars.

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Graphic shows a star’s actual and predicted spin rates with the core spinning slower in the actual scenario.

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Credit: Lucy Reading-Ikkanda
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In a new numerical model, scientists located that a tiny, random magnetic industry inside the radiative layer of a star could be amplified by the plasma’s circulation. When powerful enough, this magnetic discipline spurs turbulence in the star’s plasma, which in transform strengthens the magnetic field, which boosts the turbulence, and so on.

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Graphic highlights the radiative zone of a star near the edge of the core.

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Credit history: Lucy Looking at-Ikkanda
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This magnetic drive exerts a potent torque on the star’s plasma, slowing its spin. “It leads to a breaking outcome,” suggests Florence Marcotte, a scientist at Côte d’Azur University in France, who co-authored the examine released in Science.

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Graphic uses color coding to indicate magnetic field strength and angular velocity fluctuations in the radiative zone before and after the onset of turbulence.

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Credit history: Lucy Studying-Ikkanda Source: “Spin-Down by Dynamo Action in Simulated Radiative Stellar Levels,” by Ludovic Petitdemange, Florence Marcotte and Christophe Gissinger, in Science, Vol. 379 January 20, 2023 (reference)
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This system is compatible with observations of the spin prices of neutron stars and white dwarfs. It could maybe take place within the sun’s radiative zone as perfectly.

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Graphic shows newly calculated slower spin rate with magnetic lines in play.

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Credit: Lucy Looking through-Ikkanda
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