Capture Stars

Usually, in stars like our sun, convection flows of superheated gases bubble up from near the stars’ cores to the surface, much like the convection flow of water in a boiling kettle.

It is also nearing the end of its life; astronomers estimate that it will explode as a supernova in just a few thousand years.

Using an instrument called AMBER (Astronomical Multi-BEam combineR), Ohnaka’s team was able to measure the speed of plasma bubbling up from Antares' interior at different positions and compare these speeds with the average speed of plasma across the whole of the star.

The image shows Antares' tumultuous surface and reveals unexpected turbulence in its atmosphere, hinting at some mysterious process that is churning away violently inside the stellar mass, the scientists added.

"Our work brings stellar astrophysics to a new dimension and opens an entirely new window to observe stars," he said.

[Supernova Photos: Great Images of Star Explosions]
Now, using the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope Interferometer (VLTI) in Chile, astronomers have resolved the turbulent structure in the star’s outermost layers, revealing, for the first time, detail on a distant star’s surface and, possibly, filling in the gaps of our knowledge as to how massive stars die.

Ohnaka is hopeful that the observational techniques demonstrated on Antares may be applied to other stars to see how their atmospheres are structured, perhaps revealing the mystery that drives these turbulent motions.

The image shows Antares' tumultuous surface and reveals unexpected turbulence in its atmosphere, hinting at some mysterious process that is churning away violently inside the stellar mass, the scientists added.

The image shows Antares' tumultuous surface and reveals unexpected turbulence in its atmosphere, hinting at some mysterious process that is churning away violently inside the stellar mass, the scientists added.

It is also nearing the end of its life; astronomers estimate that it will explode as a supernova in just a few thousand years.

[Supernova Photos: Great Images of Star Explosions]
Now, using the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope Interferometer (VLTI) in Chile, astronomers have resolved the turbulent structure in the star’s outermost layers, revealing, for the first time, detail on a distant star’s surface and, possibly, filling in the gaps of our knowledge as to how massive stars die.

The VLTI consists of up to four telescopes—a combination of 26.9-foot (8.2 meters) "Unit Telescopes" and smaller 5.9-foot (1.8 m) "Auxiliary Telescopes"—that combine their collected infrared light via interferometry to create a "virtual" telescope 660 feet (200 m) wide.

Very high angular resolution of distant objects can therefore be attained, allowing the dramatic, bubbling surface of Antares to be studied in detail.