Researchers have found that magnetic fields are much more prevalent in star systems with massive blue stars than previously believed. This discovery, made using spectropolarimetric data, sheds new light on the evolution and explosive deaths of these stars, altering our understanding of their role in the universe. Credit: SciTechDaily.com
A new study reveals that magnetic fields are common in star systems with large blue stars, challenging prior beliefs and providing insights into the evolution and explosive nature of these massive stars.
Astronomers from the Leibniz Institute for Astrophysics Potsdam (AIP), the European Southern Observatory (
The magnetosphere is a region of space surrounding an astronomical object in which charged particles are affected by that object’s magnetic field. The white lines represent the magnetic field lines forming the magnetosphere. The Magnetic poles are on the top and on the bottom of the star on the left. The brighter color is used for higher density distribution of the gas. A gas disk is visible as the concentration of the gas density distribution in the (magnetic) equatorial plane. Credit: AIP/M. Küker
Stellar Winds and Magnetospheres
Like the Sun, massive stars have stellar winds – an energetic stream of charged particles. These DOI: 10.1093/mnras/stad730