A large catalog of stars associated with stellar clusters recently compiled in the framework of the Gaia-ESO Survey.

Star clusters are a product of the star formation process. During their gravitational collapse, in fact, molecular clouds fragment forming hundreds or even thousands of stars. During the first few tens of million of years of their evolution, the young stars formed in a cloud are bound by the intense mutual gravitational attraction, forming a stellar cluster. Star clusters are important

» Read more

Lithium abundance and stellar internal structure. The study: “The Gaia-ESO survey: Mixing processes in low-mass stars traced by lithium abundance in cluster and field stars” of L. Magrini (INAF – OA Arcetri) recently appeared on A&A

The chemical history of Lithium abundance in the Universe is very complex. This chemical element has been first produced during the Big Bang, even if in very small quantities compared with hydrogen and helium. Since then, lithium is continuously created and destroyed by several processes occurring in stellar interior. This means that the lithium abundances we observe in stars today

» Read more

INAF-OAPA researchers observe for the first time X-ray emission from an active region in a B star

The study of the X-ray emission from stars provides an unmatched view of those energetic phenomena occurring in stars. In massive stars (O and early B stars), soft X-ray photons (less energetic than about 1 keV) are emitted from shocks in stellar winds. More energetic photons (the hard X-ray emission) is due to colliding stellar winds in binary systems or

» Read more

Osservata per la prima volta emissione ai raggi X associata ad una regione attiva in una stella B. Pubblicato su A&A lo studio: “Detection of magnetic field in the B2 star ρ Ophiuchi A with ESO FORS2” di I. Pillitteri (INAF-OAPA)

di Mario Giuseppe Guarcello    ( segui mguarce)     Lo studio dell’emissione di raggi X dalle stelle offre molte diagnostiche di fenomeni stellari ad alta energia. Nelle stelle massive (di classe spettrale O le B più calde) raggi X “soffici” (con energia generalmente minore di 1keV, corrispondente a temperature minori di 10 milioni di gradi) sono emessi in shock nei

» Read more