Credit: SciTechDaily.comGyrochronology, a strategy for estimating star ages based on rotation, has been extended from cluster stars to field stars, exposing consistent aging patterns and broadening the scope for star age determination.Scientists at the Leibniz Institute for Astrophysics Potsdam (AIP) and Boston University have effectively established a connection between the rotation rates of stars in star clusters and those outside them, so-called field stars, making it possible for the ages of the latter to be derived. The results show that the method of gyrochronology can be applied not just to cluster stars, however also works well for field stars, and thus the ages of many more stars can be determined.Gyrochronology: A Tool for Dating StarsHow old is a star? It develops a relationship between the rotation of a star and its color as well as its age.The rotation duration with which a star spins around its axis can be determined from observations of its brightness: many stars have dark areas on their surface area, much like the Suns sunspots. When a star rotates and a starspot moves into an observers field of view, the brightness of the star reduces by a small amount.By determining these little dips in the strength of the stars light and when they repeat, for instance with information from the Kepler satellite, as was utilized here, the rotation period of a star can be measured.In this composite of full-frame images taken by the Kepler telescope, the positions of some of the broad binaries from the sample are overplotted in red and yellow. Wide binary stars are field stars however their common origin allows one assumption likewise used for cluster stars– that they are of the exact same age.
Credit: SciTechDaily.comGyrochronology, a technique for approximating star ages based on rotation, has been extended from cluster stars to field stars, exposing constant aging patterns and expanding the scope for star age determination.Scientists at the Leibniz Institute for Astrophysics Potsdam (AIP) and Boston University have actually successfully developed a connection between the rotation rates of stars in star clusters and those outside them, so-called field stars, making it possible for the ages of the latter to be derived. The results reveal that the technique of gyrochronology can be applied not only to cluster stars, but also works well for field stars, and hence the ages of numerous more stars can be determined.Gyrochronology: A Tool for Dating StarsHow old is a star? When a star rotates and a starspot moves into an observers field of view, the brightness of the star decreases by a little amount.By determining these little dips in the strength of the stars light and when they repeat, for instance with information from the Kepler satellite, as was used here, the rotation period of a star can be measured.In this composite of full-frame images taken by the Kepler telescope, the positions of some of the broad binaries from the sample are overplotted in red and yellow.
