The magnetic nature of a mysterious naked-eye cosmic X-ray emitter
Our Sun has its flares and spots and wind, but it's a placid star
compared to some. Stars that are much more massive live fast and die
young, with blue-white, intensely hot surfaces that emit energy at a
rate millions of times greater than that of the Sun. These stars are
so bright that their light alone propels outflowing stellar winds - up
to a billion times stronger than the solar wind - at speeds of up to
one per cent of the speed of light.
An international team of astronomers[1] has discovered that one such
star, the naked-eye tau Scorpii, unexpectedly hosts a complex network
of magnetic field lines over its surface. Tau Sco has been known for some time to
emit X-rays at an unusually high rate and to rotate slower than
most otherwise similar stars. The newly-discovered magnetic field, presumably a relic
from the star's formation stage, goes some way to explaining both characteristics,
although the mechanism by which the magnetic field slowed down tau Scorpii's rotation so
strongly remains mysterious.
These results will be published in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.
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The complex network of magnetic field lines recently discovered at the surface of the massive star tau Scorpii. Click on the image to see an animation (10 Mb) of what the observer sees as the star rotates. © MM Jardine & JF Donati |
One such hot star is tau Scorpii, whose intrinsic brightness is so great that it is easily visible with the naked eye despite its distance of over 400 light-years. Weighting as much as 15 suns, tau Scorpii is both 5 to 6 times bigger and hotter than our own star. Such massive stars are relatively few compared to stars like the Sun, and tau Scorpii is actually one of our closest massive neighbours.
Massive stars are thought to emit X-rays because of supersonic shocks occuring within their winds. However, tau Scorpii is an unusually strong X-ray source compared to otherwise similar stars, and the reason for this enhanced activity was a puzzle until the present discovery, which revealed that the star hosts a complex network of magnetic field lines over its surface (see image). According to the discovery team[1], this field is most probably a relic from the star's formation stage.
The most interesting aspect, though, is how the field interacts with the wind, forcing it to flow along magnetic field lines, like beads along wires. Wind streams along 'open' magnetic-field lines (shown in blue) freely escape the star, something that wind streams in magnetic 'arcades' (shown in white) cannot achieve. The result is that, within each magnetic arcade, wind flows from both footpoints collide with each other at the loop summits, producing tremendously energetic shocks and turning the wind material into blobs of million-degree, X-ray emitting plasma tied to the magnetic loops.
This model provides a natural explanation of why tau Scorpii is such an intense X-ray emitter. However, it is not yet clear how the magnetic field succeeded in slowing down the rotation rate of the star to less than one-tenth that of otherwise similar, non-magnetic, massive stars. Sun-like stars can be slowed down through their magnetic wind, just as ice-skaters are spun down when outstretching their arms; tau Scorpii does not, however, lose material fast enough to have its rotation modified within its very short lifetime of 'only' a few million years.
The researchers discovered and examined the magnetic field of the star by looking at the tiny, very specific polarisation signals that magnetic fields induce in the light of magnetic stars; to do this, they used ESPaDOnS[2], by far the most powerful instrument in the world for carrying out this kind of research. This new instrument, currently attached to the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope[3] on Hawaii, was especially designed at the Observatoire Midi-Pyrénées in France for observing and studying magnetic fields in stars other than the Sun.
Press contacts are:
Jean-François Donati, Laboratoire d'Astrophysique de Toulouse-Tarbes,
Observatoire Midi-Pyrénées, 14 avenue E. Belin, 31400 Toulouse, France. Tel: +33 561332917, Fax: +33 561332840,
email: donati@ast.obs-mip.fr.
Ian Howarth, Department of Physics and Astronomy, University College
London, Gower Street, London WC1 E6BT, UK, Tel: +44 20-7679-3491,
email: idh@star.ucl.ac.uk
Thierry Forveille, CFHT, 65-1238 Mamalahoa Hwy, Kamuela HI, 96743 USA, Tel: +1 (808) 8853160, Fax: +1 (808) 8857288,
email: thierry.forveille@cfht.hawaii.edu
Related links:
the ESPaDOnS spectropolarimeter: instrument description and first results
hot star winds (by David Cohen): brief introduction
the solar wind (wikipedia): basic description
the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope:
official web site
web site of CNRS/INSU (in french):
official press release
web site of the Royal Astronomical Society:
official press release
the ESPaDOnS spectropolarimeter: instrument description and first results
hot star winds (by David Cohen): brief introduction
the solar wind (wikipedia): basic description
the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope:
official web site
web site of CNRS/INSU (in french):
official press release
web site of the Royal Astronomical Society:
official press release