Kepler measurements of starlight infer the spin rate of a star by picking up small changes in its brightness. The telescope measured the rotation rates of more than 750 stars in the Pleiades, including about 500 of the lowest-mass, tiniest, and dimmest cluster members, whose rotations could not previously be detected from ground-based instruments. Given its field of view on the sky, Kepler observed approximately 1,000 stellar members of the Pleiades over the course of 72 days. Rebull and colleagues sought to delve deeper into these dynamics of stellar spin with Kepler.
The charged particles are carried along the star's magnetic fields, which overall exerts a braking effect on the rotation rate of the star.
NASA PICTURE OF THE DAY STAR CLUSTERS ZIP
At about 125 million years old, these stars - known individually as Pleiads - have reached stellar "young adulthood." In this stage of their lives, the stars are likely spinning the fastest they ever will.Īs a typical star moves further along into adulthood, it loses some zip due to the copious emission of charged particles known as a stellar wind (in our solar system, we call this the solar wind). The Pleiades star cluster is one of the closest and most easily seen star clusters, residing just 445 light-years away from Earth, on average. She is the lead author of two new papers and a co-author on a third paper about these findings, all being published in the Astronomical Journal. "We hope that by comparing our results to other star clusters, we will learn more about the relationship between a star's mass, its age, and even the history of its solar system," said Luisa Rebull, a research scientist at the Infrared Processing and Analysis Center at Caltech in Pasadena, California. This information can help astronomers gain insight into where and how planets form around these stars, and how such stars evolve. Astronomers have long wondered what determines the rotation rates of these stars.īy watching these stellar dancers, NASA's Kepler space telescope during its K2 mission has helped amass the most complete catalog of rotation periods for stars in a cluster. But these celestial dancers are all twirling at different speeds. To celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Hubble Space Telescope's launch, NASA has released new Hubble images of 30 of the Caldwell catalog space sights to see.Like cosmic ballet dancers, the stars of the Pleiades cluster are spinning. You can also explore the images from NASA's Messier and Caldwell catalogs to get a feel for the wonders of space. With a clear night, a telescope, and some research, you can search the skies for these beautiful wonders. The list of 109 sights includes those viewable from both the Northern and Southern hemispheres. Although Hubble is fitted with much more powerful lenses than a consumer telescope, most amateurs here on Earth can view the Caldwell objects for themselves. Fans of the final frontier can expect more images of the wonders of space for years to come. The Hubble Space Telescope-which has received five upgrades over the past three decades-will continue to pursue its celestial mission. Some shots are partial, due to the telescope's detailed field of view. The up-to-date database now contains details and images of 87 of the 109 objects. The images join those already released in 2019 as NASA began to curate images of the Caldwell catalog's 109 sights to see. Among the Hubble anniversary image drops are truly spectacular views of star fields, swirling spiral galaxies, and hazy nebulas. Used for research, the images were not processed for public release until recently. According to NASA, the images were taken at different points over the last 30 years.
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