In our galaxy exists billions of massive stars. Despite their short and turbulent existence, protostars play a significant role in astrophysics. For example, they forge metals and heavier chemical elements, which will be released into space at the end of their life, when they explode as supernovae and become neutron stars or black holes.
For astrophysicists, how massive stars form remains a mystery. But DIAS astrophysicist Dr. Alessio Caratti o Garatti has been working on proving a theory which could explain it all.
Dr Caratti o Garatti proposes that high-mass protostars gather their mass via brief bursts of `episodic accretion’. This theory predicts short, intense accretion bursts in which the forming star (also called protostar) gains mass from its surrounding accretion disk, followed by long periods of inactivity lasting hundreds, to thousands of years.
In January 2019 astronomers at Ibaraki university, Japan, noticed that one such high-mass protostar called G358-MM1, showed signs of new activity, indicative of a potential accretion burst.
In response, a collaboration of astronomers including Dr. Caratti o Garatti from DIAS called the Maser Monitoring Organisation (M2O) gathered several radio telescopes from Australia, New Zealand and South Africa to form a telescope array capable of detecting radio emission stimulated by the heat of the accreting protostar.
The team, led by Dr. Ross Burns of the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, compared multiple images spaced a few weeks apart to reveal a “heat-wave” of thermal energy radiating outward from the location of the protostar.
The cause of the heat-wave was later confirmed to originate in an accretion event by the plane-borne SOFIA telescope. “Our observations are the first to witness the immediate aftermath of an accretion burst in a high-mass protostar in such detail, which provide further evidence in support of the `episodic accretion’ theory of high-mass star formation”, says Dr. Caratti o Garatti.
The result, which was published in Nature Astronomy, will be followed by a series of deeper investigations into the nature of high-mass protostars, their formation mechanisms and their environments.
We have entered the last month to capture that amazing photo of the sky and win our Astrophotography competition.
We are accepting photographs taken between 01 January 2020 and 31 March 2021.
You can submit an entry up to Friday 02nd April 2021.
More: dias.ie/reachforthesta…
Meet the Judges of our "Reach for the Stars" Astrophotography competition!
@petertgallagher is Head of @DIASAstronomy & has spent the past two decades studying the Sun its impacts on the Earth. To learn more and submit an entry see
dias.ie/reachforthesta…#DIASdiscovers
She has over 15 years’ experience working in PR and communications and has wide-ranging experience of providing strategic communications support to organisations.
Learn more about the competition and submit an entry
👉dias.ie/reachforthesta…#DIASdiscovers#astrophotography
Want to learn more about what's happening on Mars? Check out our public lecture from November delivered Dr John Clinton and titled MarsQuakes! (5/5)
youtu.be/_Lp0oLJ8Ahs
And then this Thursday @NASAMars Perseverance rover reaches Mars, which will try to land in a near equatorial crater called Jezero. Here you can see a possible route around the crater. (4/5)
Last Wednesday, the day the UAE revealed their first image of Mars, China's National Space Administration's Tianwen-1 arrived at Mars. This carries a rover which will be despatched to the surface in the coming months. (3/5)
bbc.com/news/science-e…
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DIAS astrophysicist confirms theory on how massive stars are formed
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Last Updated: 21st January 2020 by Caoimhe Mulhall
In our galaxy exists billions of massive stars. Despite their short and turbulent existence, protostars play a significant role in astrophysics. For example, they forge metals and heavier chemical elements, which will be released into space at the end of their life, when they explode as supernovae and become neutron stars or black holes.
Dr Caratti o Garatti proposes that high-mass protostars gather their mass via brief bursts of `episodic accretion’. This theory predicts short, intense accretion bursts in which the forming star (also called protostar) gains mass from its surrounding accretion disk, followed by long periods of inactivity lasting hundreds, to thousands of years.
In January 2019 astronomers at Ibaraki university, Japan, noticed that one such high-mass protostar called G358-MM1, showed signs of new activity, indicative of a potential accretion burst.
In response, a collaboration of astronomers including Dr. Caratti o Garatti from DIAS called the Maser Monitoring Organisation (M2O) gathered several radio telescopes from Australia, New Zealand and South Africa to form a telescope array capable of detecting radio emission stimulated by the heat of the accreting protostar.
The team, led by Dr. Ross Burns of the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, compared multiple images spaced a few weeks apart to reveal a “heat-wave” of thermal energy radiating outward from the location of the protostar.
The cause of the heat-wave was later confirmed to originate in an accretion event by the plane-borne SOFIA telescope. “Our observations are the first to witness the immediate aftermath of an accretion burst in a high-mass protostar in such detail, which provide further evidence in support of the `episodic accretion’ theory of high-mass star formation”, says Dr. Caratti o Garatti.
The result, which was published in Nature Astronomy, will be followed by a series of deeper investigations into the nature of high-mass protostars, their formation mechanisms and their environments.
Category: Astronomy and Astrophysics, Astronomy and Astrophysics Section News & Events, DIAS, News, Uncategorised
Nice work 👏 twitter.com/dias_geophysic…
Following on from our post, highlighting inspiring #WomeninResearch and encouraging #MondayMotiviation to explore these subjects. @ChantalKobel presents Celticist, Nessa Ní Shéaghdha and her contributions to the discipline youtu.be/LGPLltjTBKw #DIASdiscovers
We have entered the last month to capture that amazing photo of the sky and win our Astrophotography competition. We are accepting photographs taken between 01 January 2020 and 31 March 2021. You can submit an entry up to Friday 02nd April 2021. More: dias.ie/reachforthesta…
Meet the Judges of our "Reach for the Stars" Astrophotography competition! @petertgallagher is Head of @DIASAstronomy & has spent the past two decades studying the Sun its impacts on the Earth. To learn more and submit an entry see dias.ie/reachforthesta… #DIASdiscovers
She has over 15 years’ experience working in PR and communications and has wide-ranging experience of providing strategic communications support to organisations. Learn more about the competition and submit an entry 👉dias.ie/reachforthesta… #DIASdiscovers #astrophotography
Meet the Judges of our "Reach for the Stars" Astrophotography competition! @MartinaPQuinn is the Founder & Managing Director of @helloalicepr.
Want to learn more about what's happening on Mars? Check out our public lecture from November delivered Dr John Clinton and titled MarsQuakes! (5/5) youtu.be/_Lp0oLJ8Ahs
And then this Thursday @NASAMars Perseverance rover reaches Mars, which will try to land in a near equatorial crater called Jezero. Here you can see a possible route around the crater. (4/5)
Last Wednesday, the day the UAE revealed their first image of Mars, China's National Space Administration's Tianwen-1 arrived at Mars. This carries a rover which will be despatched to the surface in the coming months. (3/5) bbc.com/news/science-e…