MADRID, Aug. 8 (EUROPA PRESS) –
Scientists have used highly detailed simulations to discover what determines the masses of stars, a mystery that has captivated astrophysicists for decades.
Last year, a team of astrophysicists including key members from Northwestern University launched STARFORGE, a project that produces the highest resolution and most realistic 3D simulations of star formation to date.
In a new study, the team found that star formation is a self-regulating process. In other words, the stars themselves set their own masses. This helps explain why stars formed in disparate environments still have similar masses. The new finding may allow researchers to better understand star formation within our own Milky Way and other galaxies.
The study was published last week in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. The collaborative team included experts from Northwestern, the University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin), Carnegie Observatories, Harvard University, and the California Institute of Technology. The lead author of the new study is Dávid Guszejnov, a postdoctoral fellow at UT Austin.
“Understanding the stellar initial mass function is such an important problem because it affects astrophysics across the board, from nearby planets to distant galaxiessaid Claude-André Faucher-Giguère of Northwestern, co-author of the study, it’s a statement.
“This is because stars have relatively simple DNA. If you know the mass of a star, then you know most things about the star: how much light it emits, how long he will live and what will happen to him when he dies. The distribution of stellar masses is therefore critical to determining whether planets orbiting stars can support life, as well as what distant galaxies look like.”