Universe Today

Image credit: ESO
Based on a large observational effort with different telescopes and instruments, mostly from the European Southern Observatory (ESO), a team of European astronomers [1] has shown that in the M 17 nebula a high mass star [2] forms via accretion through a circumstellar disc, i.e. through the same channel as low-mass stars.

To reach this conclusion, the astronomers used very sensitive infrared instruments to penetrate the south-western molecular cloud of M 17 so that faint emission from gas heated up by a cluster of massive stars, partly located behind the molecular cloud, could be detected through the dust.

Against the background of this hot region a large opaque silhouette, which resembles a flared disc seen nearly edge-on, is found to be associated with an hour-glass shaped reflection nebula. This system complies perfectly with a newly forming high-mass star surrounded by a huge accretion disc and accompanied by an energetic bipolar mass outflow.

The new observations corroborate recent theoretical calculations which claim that stars up to 40 times more massive than the Sun can be formed by the same processes that are active during the formation of stars of smaller masses.

The M 17 region
While many details related to the formation and early evolution of low-mass stars like the Sun are now well understood, the basic scenario that leads to the formation of high-mass stars [2] still remains a mystery. Two possible scenarios for the formation of massive stars are currently being studied. In the first, such stars form by accretion of large amounts of circumstellar material; the infall onto the nascent star varies with time. Another possibility is formation by collision (coalescence) of protostars of intermediate masses, increasing the stellar mass in “jumps”.

In their continuing quest to add more pieces to the puzzle and help providing an answer to this fundamental question, a team of European astronomers [1] used a battery of telescopes, mostly at two of the European Southern Observatory’s Chilean sites of La Silla and Paranal, to study in unsurpassed detail the Omega nebula.

The Omega nebula, also known as the 17th object in the list of famous French astronomer Charles Messier, i.e. Messier 17 or M 17, is one of the most prominent star forming regions in our Galaxy. It is located at a distance of 7,000 light-years.

M 17 is extremely young – in astronomical terms – as witnessed by the presence of a cluster of high-mass stars that ionise the surrounding hydrogen gas and create a so-called H II region. The total luminosity of these stars exceeds that of our Sun by almost a factor of ten million.

Adjacent to the south-western edge of the H II region, there is a huge cloud of molecular gas which is believed to be a site of ongoing star formation. In order to search for newly forming high-mass stars, Rolf Chini of the Ruhr-Universit?t Bochum (Germany) and his collaborators have recently investigated the interface between the H II region and the molecular cloud by means of very deep optical and infrared imaging between 0.4 and 2.2 ?m.

This was done with ISAAC (at 1.25, 1.65 and 2.2 ?m) at the ESO Very Large Telescope (VLT) on Cerro Paranal in September 2002 and with EMMI (at 0.45, 0.55, 0.8 ?m) at the ESO New Technology Telescope (NTT), La Silla, in July 2003. The image quality was limited by atmospheric turbulence and varied between 0.4 and 0.8 arcsec. The result of these efforts is shown in PR Photo 15a/04.

Rolf Chini is pleased: “Our measurements are so sensitive that the south-western molecular cloud of M 17 is penetrated and the faint nebular emission of the H II region, which is partly located behind the molecular cloud, could be detected through the dust.”

Against the nebular background of the H II region a large opaque silhouette is seen associated with an hourglass shaped reflection nebula.

The silhouette disc
To obtain a better view of the structure, the team of astronomers turned then to Adaptive Optics imaging using the NAOS-CONICA instrument on the VLT.

Adaptive optics is a “wonder-weapon” in ground-based astronomy, allowing astronomers to “neutralize” the image-smearing turbulence of the terrestrial atmosphere (seen by the unaided eye as the twinkling of stars) so that much sharper images can be obtained. With NAOS-CONICA on the VLT, the astronomers were able to obtain images with a resolution better than one tenth of the “seeing”, that is, as what they could observe with ISAAC.

PR Photo 15b/04 shows the high-resolution near-infrared (2.2 ?m) image they obtained. It clearly suggests that the morphology of the silhouette resembles a flared disc, seen nearly edge-on.

The disc has a diameter of about 20,000 AU [3] – which is 500 times the distance of the farthest planet in our solar system – and is by far the largest circumstellar disc ever detected.

To study the disc structure and properties, the astronomers then turned to radio astronomy and carried out molecular line spectroscopy at the IRAM Plateau de Bure interferometer near Grenoble (France) in April 2003. The astronomers have observed the region in the rotational transitions of the 12CO, 13CO and C18O molecules, and in the adjacent continuum at 3 mm. Velocity resolutions of 0.1 and 0.2 km/s, respectively, were achieved.
Dieter N?rnberger, member of the team, sees this as a confirmation: “Our 13CO data obtained with IRAM indicate that the disc/envelope system slowly rotates with its north-western part approaching the observer.” Over an extent of 30,800 AU a velocity shift of 1.7 km/s is indeed measured.

From these observations, adopting standard values for the abundance ratio between the different isotopic carbon monoxide molecules (12CO and 13CO) and for the conversion factor to derive molecular hydrogen densities from the mesured CO intensities, the astronomers were also able to derive a conservative lower limit for the disc mass of 110 solar masses.

This is by far the most massive and largest accretion disc ever observed directly around a young massive star. The largest silhouette disc so far is known as 114-426 in Orion and has a diameter of about 1,000 AU; however, its central star is likely a low-mass object rather than a massive protostar. Although there are a small number of candidates for massive young stellar objects (YSOs) some of which are associated with outflows, the largest circumstellar disc hitherto detected around these objects has a diameter of only 130 AU.

The bipolar nebula
The second morphological structure that is visible on all images throughout the entire spectral range from visible to infrared (0.4 to 2.2 ?m) is an hourglass-shaped nebula perpendicular to the plane of the disc.

This is believed to be an energetic outflow coming from the central massive object. To confirm this, the astronomers went back to ESO’s telescopes to perform spectroscopic observations. The optical spectra of the bipolar outflow were measured in April/June 2003 with EFOSC2 at the ESO 3.6 m telescope and with EMMI at the ESO 3.5 m NTT, both located on La Silla, Chile.
The observed spectrum is dominated by the emission lines of hydrogen (H?), calcium (the Ca II triplet 849.8, 854.2 and 866.2 nm), and helium (He I 667.8 nm). In the case of low-mass stars, these lines provide indirect evidence for ongoing accretion from the inner disc onto the star.

The Ca II triplet was also shown to be a product of disc accretion for both a large sample of low and intermediate-mass protostars, known as T Tauri and Herbig Ae/Be stars, respectively. Moreover, the H? line is extremely broad and shows a deep blue-shifted absorption typically associated with accretion disc-driven outflows.

In the spectrum, numerous iron (Fe II) lines were also observed, which are velocity-shifted by ? 120 km/s. This is clear evidence for the existence of shocks with velocities of more than 50 km/s, hence another confirmation of the outflow hypothesis.

The central protostar
Due to heavy extinction, the nature of an accreting protostellar object, i.e. a star in the process of formation, is usually difficult to infer. Accessible are only those that are located in the neighbourhood of their elder brethren, e.g. next to a cluster of hot stars (cf. ESO PR 15/03). Such already evolved massive stars are a rich source of energetic photons and produce powerful stellar winds of protons (like the “solar wind” but much stronger) which impact on the surrounding interstellar gas and dust clouds. This process may lead to partial evaporation and dispersion of those clouds, thereby “lifting the curtain” and allowing us to look directly at young stars in that region.

However, for all high-mass protostellar candidates located away from such a hostile environment there is not a single direct evidence for a (proto-)stellar central object; likewise, the origin of the luminosity – typically about ten thousand solar luminosities – is unclear and may be due to multiple objects or even embedded clusters.

The new disc in M 17 is the only system which exhibits a central object at the expected position of the forming star. The 2.2 ?m emission is relatively compact (240 AU x 450 AU) – too small to host a cluster of stars.

Assuming that the emission is due solely to the star, the astronomers derive an absolute infrared brightness of about K = -2.5 magnitudes which would correspond to a main sequence star of about 20 solar masses. Given the fact that the accretion process is still active, and that models predict that about 30-50% of the circumstellar material can be accumulated onto the central object, it is likely that in the present case a massive protostar is currently being born.

Theoretical calculations show that an initial gas cloud of 60 to 120 solar masses may evolve into a star of approximately 30-40 solar masses while the remaining mass is rejected into the interstellar medium. The present observations may be the first to show this happening.

Original Source: ESO News Release

Image credit: Hubble
Scientists studying the Big Bang say that it is possible that string theory may one day be tested experimentally via measurements of the Big Bang’s afterglow.

Richard Easther, assistant professor of physics at Yale University will discuss the possibility at a meeting at Stanford University Wednesday, May 12, titled “Beyond Einstein: From the Big Bang to Black Holes.” Easther’s colleagues are Brian Greene of Columbia University, William Kinney of the University at Buffalo, SUNY, Hiranya Peiris of Princeton University and Gary Shiu of the University of Wisconsin.

String theory attempts to unify the physics of the large (gravity) and the small (the atom). These are now described by two theories, general relativity and quantum theory, both of which are likely to be incomplete.

Critics have disdained string theory as a “philosophy” that cannot be tested. However, the results of Easther and his colleagues suggest that observational evidence supporting string theory may be found in careful measurements of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB), the first light to emerge after the Big Bang.

“In the Big Bang, the most powerful event in the history of the Universe, we see the energies needed to reveal the subtle signs of string theory,” said Easther.

String theory reveals itself only over extreme small distances and at high energies. The Planck scale measures 10-35 meters, the theoretical shortest distance that can be defined. In comparison, a tiny hydrogen atom, 10-10 meters across, is ten trillion trillion times as wide. Similarly, the largest particle accelerators generate energies of 1015 electron volts by colliding sub-atomic particles. This energy level can reveal the physics of quantum theory, but is still roughly a trillion times lower than the energy required to test string theory.

Scientists say that the fundamental forces of the Universe — gravity (defined by general relativity), electromagnetism, “weak” radioactive forces and “strong” nuclear forces (all defined by quantum theory) — were united in the high-energy flash of the Big Bang, when all matter and energy was confined within a sub-atomic scale. Although the Big Bang occurred nearly 14 billion years ago its afterglow, the CMB, still blankets the entire universe and contains a fossilized record of the first moments of time.

The Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) studies the CMB and detects subtle temperature differences, within this largely uniform radiation, glowing at only 2.73 degrees Celsius above absolute zero. The uniformity is evidence of “inflation,” a period when the expansion of the Universe accelerated rapidly, around 10-33 seconds after the Big Bang. During inflation, the Universe grew from an atomic scale to a cosmic scale, increasing its size a hundred trillion trillion times over. The energy field that drove inflation, like all quantum fields, contained fluctuations. These fluctuations, locked into the cosmic microwave background like waves on a frozen pond, may contain evidence for string theory.

Easther and his colleagues compare the rapid cosmic expansion that occurred just after the Big Bang to enlarging a photograph to reveal individual pixels. While physics at the Planck scale made a “ripple” 10-35 meters across, thanks to the expansion of the Universe the fluctuation might now span many light years.

Easther stressed it is a long shot that string theory might leave measurable effects on the microwave background by subtly changing the pattern of hot and cold spots. However, string theory is so hard to test experimentally that any chance is worth trying. Successors to WMAP, such as CMBPol and the European mission, Planck, will measure the CMB with unprecedented accuracy.

The modifications to the CMB arising from string theory could deviate from the standard prediction for the temperature differences in the cosmic microwave background by as much as 1%. However, finding a small deviation from a dominant theory is not without precedent. As an example, the measured orbit of Mercury differed from what was predicted by Isaac Newton’s law of gravity by around seventy miles per year. General relativity, Albert Einstein’s law of gravity, could account for the discrepancy caused by a subtle warp in spacetime from the Sun’s gravity speeding Mercury’s orbit.

Refer to http://www-conf.slac.stanford.edu/einstein/ for more information on the “Beyond Einstein” meeting.

Original Source: Yale University News Release

Image credit: ESA
For years, astronomers have wondered whether stars similar to the Sun go through periodic cycles of enhanced X-ray activity, like those often causing troubles to telephone and power lines here on Earth.

ESA’s X-ray observatory XMM-Newton has now revealed for the first time a cyclic behaviour in the X-ray radiation emitted by a star similar to the Sun. This discovery may help scientists to understand how stars affect the development of life on their planets.

Since the time Galileo discovered sunspots, in 1610, astronomers have measured their number, size and location on the disc of the Sun. Sunspots are relatively cooler areas on the Sun that are observed as dark patches. Their number rises and falls with the level of activity of the Sun in a cycle of about 11 years.

When the Sun is very active, large-scale phenomena take place, such as the flares and coronal mass ejections observed by the ESA/NASA solar observatory SOHO. These events release a large amount of energy and charged particles that hit the Earth and can cause powerful magnetic storms, affecting radio communications, power distribution lines and even our weather and climate.

During the solar cycle, the X-ray emission from the Sun varies by a large amount (about a factor of 100) and is strongest when the cycle is at its peak and the surface of the Sun is covered by the largest number of spots.

ESA’s X-ray observatory, XMM-Newton, has now shown for the first time that this cyclic X-ray behaviour is common to other stars as well. A team of astronomers, led by Fabio Favata, from ESA’s European Space Research and Technology Centre, The Netherlands, has monitored a small number of solar-type stars since the beginning of the XMM-Newton mission in 2000. The X-ray brightness of HD 81809, a star located 90 light years away in the constellation Hydra (the water snake), has varied by more than 10 times over the past two and a half years, reaching a well defined peak in mid 2002.

The star has shown the characteristic X-ray modulation (brightening and dimming) typical of the solar cycle. “This is the first clear sign of a cyclic pattern in the X-ray emission of stars other than the Sun,” said Favata. Furthermore, the data show that these variations are synchronised with the starspot cycle. If HD 81809 behaves like the Sun, its X-ray brightness can vary by a factor of one hundred over a few years. “We might well have caught HD 81809 at the beginning of an X-ray activity cycle,” added Favata.

The existence of starspot cycles on other stars had already been established long ago, thanks to observations that began in the 1950s. However, scientists did not know whether the X-ray radiation would also vary with the number of starspots. ESA’s XMM-Newton has now shown that this is indeed the case and that this cyclic X-ray pattern is not typical of the Sun alone. “This suggests that our Sun’s behaviour is probably nothing exceptional,” said Favata.

Besides its interest for scientists, the Sun’s cyclical behaviour can have an influence on everyone on Earth. Our climate is known to be significantly affected by the high-energy radiation emitted by the Sun. For instance, a temporary disappearance of the solar cycle in the 18th century corresponded with an exceptionally cold period on Earth. Similarly, in the early phases of the lifetime of a planet, this high-energy radiation has a strong influence on the conditions of the atmosphere, and thus potentially on the development of life.

Finding out whether the Sun’s X-ray cycle is common among other solar-type stars, and in particular among those hosting potential rocky planets, can give scientists much needed clues on whether and where other forms of life might exist outside the Solar System. At the same time, understanding how typical and long-lasting is the solar behaviour will tell us more about the evolution of the climate on Earth.

Further observations of HD 81809 and other similar stars are already planned with XMM-Newton. They will allow astronomers to study whether the large modulations in X-ray brightness observed in the Sun are indeed the norm for stars of its type. Understanding how other solar-like stars behave in general will give scientists better insight into the past and future of our own Sun.

Original Source: ESA News Release