Stars like the Sun puff up and become red giants towards the end of their lives. The red giants (‘old’ Suns) of the same mass as the Sun do not show strong magnetic fields in their interior, but for stars slightly more massive, up to 60 percent host strong magnetic fields. Credit: University of Sydney
Finding to impact understanding of stellar evolution and potentially lead to a better understanding of the sun’s 22-year magnetic cycle – known to affect communication systems and cloud cover on Earth. Using data from NASA’s Kepler mission, the team found that stars only slightly more massive than the Sun have internal magnetic fields up to 10 million times that of Earth, with important implications for evolution and the ultimate fate of stars.
“This is tremendously exciting, and totally unex...
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