Images of red giant star give glimpse of Sun’s future

Astronomers have for the first time observed the clearest and sharpest view yet of the surface of an ageing star with the mass same as that of the Sun, providing a glimpse of the solar body’s future. Images captured by the ALMA telescope show that the star is a giant, its diameter twice the size of Earth’s orbit around the Sun, but also that the star’s atmosphere is affected by powerful, unexpected shock waves, researchers said.

A team led by Wouter Vlemmings from Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden created sharpest observations yet of the star with the same starting mass as the Sun. The new images show for the first time details on the surface of the red giant W Hydrae, 320 light years distant in the constellation of Hydra, the Water Snake. W Hydrae is an example of an AGB (asymptotic giant branch) star. Such stars are cool, bright, old and lose mass via stellar winds, researchers said.

Stars like the Sun evolve over timescales of many billion years. When they reach old age, they puff up and become bigger, cooler and more prone to lose mass in the form of stellar winds, they said. Stars manufacture important elements like …read more