Mar 13, 2017
Mysterious alignment of the rotation axis of stars in two clusters

The stars do not play dice! It is the extraordinary discovery that the researchers of the Department of Astrophysics-Laboratoire AIM of the CEA-Irfu made by succeeding in determining the orientation in the space of the axis of rotation of stars belonging to two clusters of stars, thanks to asteroseismology. About 70% of the observed stars have perfectly aligned axes of rotation, in formal contradiction with the star formation models which predict that these axes of rotation should be randomly distributed. Numerical simulations showed that, most likely, these stars had managed to retain the initial rotational motion of a cloud that gave rise to the cluster. This discovery, if confirmed in other clusters, could lead to reconsideration of the fundamental processes of star formation. These works make headlines in the journal Nature Astronomy of March 13, 2017

Watch the author's interview : The mysterious alignment of the rotation axis of stars 

 

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