magnetic braking tagged posts

The Science of Spin: Asteroseismologists confirm older stars rotate faster than expected

Astroseismology_720
Credit: Mark Garlick/University of Birmingham

Stars spin faster than expected as they age according to a new study led by scientists at the University of Birmingham which uses asteroseismology to shed new light on this emerging theory.

All stars, like the Sun, are born spinning. As they grow older, their spin slows down due to magnetic winds in a process called ‘magnetic braking’. Research published in 2016 by scientists at Carnegie Observatories delivered the first hints that stars at a similar stage of life as the Sun were spinning faster than magnetic braking theories predicted. The results from this study were based on a method in which scientists pinpoint dark spots on the surface of stars and track them as they move with the stars’ spin...

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