An international team led by Australian research centre ASTRO 3D reports that age is the driving force in changing how stars move within galaxies.

Galaxies start life with their stars rotating in an orderly pattern but in some the motion of stars is more random. Until now, scientists have been uncertain about what causes this – possibly the surrounding environment or the mass of the galaxy itself.

A new study, published in a paper today in MNRAS (Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society), has found that the most important factor is neither of these things. It shows the tendency of the stars to have random motion is driven mostly by the age of the galaxy – things just get messy over time.

“When we did the analysis, we found that age, consistently, whichever way we slice or dice it, is always the most important parameter,” says first author Prof Scott Croom, an ASTRO 3D researcher at the University of Sydney.

Every clear night for decades, Rod Stubbings from Tetoora Road in Gippsland has looked at a set of about 700 stars annually, recording changes in their brightness.

He is just one of three people worldwide to have made 400,000 measurements of the brightness of variable stars. His observations have helped astronomers in over a dozen countries to understand stars in the Milky Way. “When I report an interesting outburst, ground and space telescopes can zoom in for a closer look,” Rod says.

At least one in a dozen stars show evidence of planetary ingestion according to a paper published in Nature today.

The international research team studied twin stars that should have identical composition. But, in about eight percent of cases, they differ, perplexing astronomers.

The team, led by ASTRO 3D researchers has found that the difference is due to one of the twins devouring planets or planetary material. The findings have been made possible thanks to a large dataset collected with the 6.5-metre Magellan Telescope and the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope, both in Chile, and the 10-meter Keck Telescope in Hawaii, United States.

Galaxies and stars developed faster after the Big Bang than expected

Detailed pictures of one of the very first galaxies show growth was much faster than we thought

An international research team have made unprecedentedly detailed observations of the earliest merger of galaxies ever witnessed. They suggest stars developed much faster and more efficiently than we thought.

They used the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) to observe the massive object as it was 510 million years after the Big Bang – i.e. around 13 billion years ago.

Sunday is World Hearing Day. Many people wait too long to act with hearing issues that could be improved. MindEar’s audiologists and tinnitus researchers are available for media interviews Saturday and Sunday morning to encourage people to do something about their hearing issues. Details below

Changing mindsets: Let’s make ear and hearing care a reality for all!

A German aircraft flying out of Cairns is measuring the chemistry of the clouds above Australia and the Pacific.

FEBRUARY 23, 2024: This week, a German research aircraft is sampling air up to 15 km above Australia and the Pacific Ocean. The CAFE-Pacific Mission aims to better understand:

• how the tropical atmosphere deals with air pollution;
• how clouds form over oceans;
• how to refine weather and climate models, leading to better forecasts and projections; and, fundamentally
• to better understand the chemistry of climate.

Flying out of Cairns in the northeast of Australia, the Chemistry of the Atmosphere: Field Experiment (CAFE) team are tracking weather events and taking atmospheric measurements to better understand the atmospheric chemistry occurring above the clouds.

Let them know during International Tinnitus Awareness Week, from 5 to 11 February. 

• Millions of people have been told there is nothing they can do about their tinnitus.
• That’s bad advice and for many it leads to more stress anxiety and depression.
• Our researchers in Auckland, Sydney, France, Belgium, the UK and the USA are available for interview throughout Tinnitus Week.

An app can change the lives of those affected by tinnitus

• Millions of people have been told to there is nothing they can do about their tinnitus.
• That’s bad advice and for many it leads to more stress anxiety and depression. 
• With specialist psychological support you can train your brain to ignore tinnitus. But that’s expensive and not widely available. 
• Now, a research team led by the University of Auckland have developed an app that, in a trial published today in Frontiers in Audiology and Otology, reduced the impact of tinnitus in two-thirds of users in weeks. 

… all while discovering how the Universe evolved, how galaxies form and where the elements come from.

Around the world, research agencies are struggling to achieve gender parity.

A paper published in Nature Astronomy today reports how a national Australian astronomy centre achieved equal numbers of women and men using science.