Sunday, March 2, 2008

Little Helper Stars

A new theory has been offered by astrophysicists at the University of California, Berkeley and Princeton University: huge, rare stars inside of interstellar clouds of gas and dust need smaller (well, relatively speaking; they're the size of the Sun) "helper" stars in order to be formed. There are not many of these types of stars but they help to make the bulk of a galaxy's heavy elements when they explode in supernovaes and they are extraordinarily bright, making them like "signposts" of star formation in other galaxies. Check it out:

http://www.astronomy.com/asy/default.aspx?c=a&id=6674

No comments: