Cozy Dark: Science is awesome, and space is pretty! ...wanna be friends?

Brought to you the folks at I Dream of Space.

Search

Current Gravity Theories Do Not Explain Globular Clusters | 

Gravity remains the dominant force on large astronomical scales, but when it comes to stars in young star clusters the dynamics in these crowded environments cannot be simply explained by the pull of gravity.

After analyzing Hubble Space Telescope images of star cluster NGC 1818 in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a satellite galaxy of the Milky Way, researchers at the Kavli Institute for Astronomy and Astrophysics (KIAA) at Peking University in Beijing found more binary star systems toward the periphery of cluster than in the center — the opposite of what they expected. The surprising distribution of binaries is thought to result from complex interactions among stars within young clusters.

The team’s finding will be published in the March 1 print issue of The Astrophysical Journal and is now online.

In the dynamic environment of a star cluster, high-mass stars are thought to gravitate toward the center of a cluster when they give a ‘kick’ to lower-mass stars and lose energy, explained KIAA Prof. Richard de Grijs, who led the study. This leads them to sink to the cluster center, while the lower-mass stars gain energy and might move to orbits at greater distances from the cluster core. Astronomers call this process “mass segregation.” continue reading

Source kavlifoundation.org

Notes

  1. heabuh reblogged this from thescienceofreality
  2. fuckyeahspacecadet reblogged this from cozydark
  3. mysteryisjoe reblogged this from cozydark and added:
    Amazing. So much left to be discovered.
  4. soldiersofthewasteland reblogged this from cozydark
  5. teresaleighann reblogged this from cozydark
  6. natthebuddhist reblogged this from cozydark
  7. tubaballerina reblogged this from cozydark
  8. i-am-allergic-to-your-stupidness reblogged this from cozydark
  9. chibaba27 reblogged this from cozydark
  10. 4pfoh4 reblogged this from cozydark
  11. auto-responding reblogged this from cozydark
  12. bazookoidben reblogged this from cozydark
  13. krispykremedman reblogged this from doctexmex
  14. thecalicobear reblogged this from dfw-cub
  15. doctexmex reblogged this from dfw-cub
  16. dfw-cub reblogged this from lauroariel
  17. shangri-blah reblogged this from abluegirl
  18. flannelfrog reblogged this from abluegirl
  19. stardusterthe reblogged this from thescienceofreality
  20. telamonian reblogged this from squishy-ass-wizard
  21. squishy-ass-wizard reblogged this from thescienceofreality
  22. whered-the-time-go reblogged this from thescienceofreality
  23. zenfuldestruction reblogged this from abluegirl
  24. idlnmclean reblogged this from abluegirl
Blog comments powered by Disqus

Loading posts...