A five star, doubly-eclipsing star system

Astronomers at the Open University have discovered the first quintuple star system containing two eclipsing binary stars. Scientists think that about a third of stars are found in pairs or multiple systems. To find five stars connected to each other though is very rare.

An artist’s impression of the five star system 1SWASP J093010.78+533859.5. The smaller orbits are not shown to scale relative to the larger orbit, as the binary components would be too close together to distinguish. The inset images are to scale, along with the diameter of the Sun for comparison. The blue dotted line marks the orbital path of the two pairs of stars. The fifth star, whose position is uncertain, is to the right of the left pair. Source: RAS

Neptune’s badly behaved magnetic field

Combining 26-year old data with supercomputer simulations, a team of scientists at Imperial College London have modelled Neptune’s magnetic field in detail for the first time. The researchers find that the furthest planet from the Sun has a badly behaved magnetic field, but one that may help us understand the risks from ‘space weather’ around Earth.

A snapshot of Neptune’s magnetic. Source: RAS

Reconstructing the star birth environment in a globular cluster

Using state of the art computer simulations, a team of astronomers from the University of Bonn in Germany have found the first evidence that the way in which stars form depends on their birth environment. The team, based at the University of Bonn in Germany, publish their results in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.

A Hubble Space Telescope image of the massive star cluster R 136 in the Large Magellanic Cloud. R136 is a potential birth site of much more massive stars, although unconfirmed, than observed in "normal" sites of present-day star formation. Credit: NASA, J. Trauger (JPL), J. Westphal (Caltech)

How to distinguish an ultra-cool brown dwarf from a giant planet

An international team of astronomers led by David Pinfield of the University of Hertfordshire has found a brown dwarf that is more than 99% hydrogen and helium. Described as ultra-cool, it has a temperature of just 400 degrees Celsius and its discovery could be a key step forward in helping astronomers distinguish between brown dwarfs and giant planets. The researchers publish their work in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.

This artist's impression shows BD+01 2920B in the foreground (on the right hand side), with its host star in the background. The colour and banded atmosphere of the brown dwarf result from atmospheric gases and turbulence. Credit: J. Pinfield, for the RoPACS network at the University of Hertfordshire