Sun's Infancy Gains New Insight With Surface Images Of A Nearby Star

A reportedly fascinating insight has been gained into the infant moments of the sun and how it may have behaved billions of years ago, based on close up pictures of a nearby star Zeta Andromedae. An international team of astronomers created the first direct image of surface structures on the neighbor star, located 181 light years from our planet in the northern constellation of Andromeda, using cutting edge techniques.

According to a report, a technique called interferometry was used by the researchers to create the image of the star's surface during one of its rotation, which incidentally takes 18 days. The method combined the light of physically separate telescopes to develop the required power of a 330 m telescope.

On the basis of the images, it was discovered that Zeta Andromedae exhibited signs of starspots, a phenomenon similar to the sunspots found in our solar system. However, the patterns on the nearby star were found to be significantly different from the spots found on the sun. As per the astronomers, these results challenge current perceptions of how magnetic fields of stars influence their evolution. Moreover, the researchers suggested that the discovery offers a rare insight into the behavior of the sun during its infancy, when the solar system was just forming.

"Most stars behave like giant rotating magnets and starspots are the visible manifestation of this magnetic activity," said Professor Stefan Kraus from the University of Exeter. "Imaging these structures can help us to decipher the workings that take place deep below the stellar surface." Starspots and sunspots are the darker, cooler areas of a star's outer shell that are created when the magnetic field's stronger regions block the flow of energy and heat in patches. However, whereas sunspots get formed only in bands just above and under its equator, the story of the starspots on Zeta Andromedae is quite different.

Based on their observation of the nearby star, the researchers derived that stars with strong magnetic fields could have polar starspots too, this means that the spots are not contained to forming only around the equator in symmetrical bands. The finding suggests that magnetic fields can restrain heat flow over a large portion of the star's surface, rather than only in spots. According to the researchers, it is important to understand the history of the sun because that governs our planet's history, and a deeper comprehension of the solar environment will help in understanding the necessary requirements for the formation of life.