Astronomers had suspected that the thick rings around some young, hot and hefty stars are the signatures of stars with strong magnetic fields. The surfaces of some of those "magnetic stars" possess peculiar chemical compositions, namely, low amounts of heavy elements such as iron. Now a team of astronomers analyzing archival information on four such stars provides convincing evidence of the link between rings and magnetic fields.
The team also suggests that rings around massive stars are more common than scientists had thought: Their study shows that magnetic stars with normal chemical abundances can have rings, too.
The Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc. (AURA), for NASA, under contract with the Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD. The Hubble Space Telescope is a project of international cooperation between NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA).
(Editor's Note: Images can be found at the URLs below.)
http://oposite.stsci.edu/pubinfo/pr/2001/19
http://hubble.stsci.edu/go/news
http://oposite.stsci.edu/pubinfo/latest.html
http://oposite.stsci.edu/pubinfo/pictures.html
[Contact: Myron Smith, Detlef Groote, Donna Weaver]
13-Jul-2001
