Stellar evolution articles from across Nature Portfolio

The neutron star birth-mass function, based on 90 mass measurements, shows a unimodal turn-on power-law shape peaking at 1.27 solar masses. This model links supernova progenitors and binary evolution to observed mass constraints.

Opacities are considered to be the source of the disagreement between theoretical solar models and helioseismic data. Here, the authors show solar opacity profiles derived from seismic inferences, which differs from theoretical values used in the solar models.

S-cluster is a group of high-velocity stars near the supermassive black hole in the center of our Galaxy, and binary stars have been predicted in the S-cluster, but not detected. Here, the authors show detection of a spectroscopic binary in the S-cluster.

60Fe and 26Al provide insights about active nucleosynthesis in our galaxy and there is a discrepancy between observed and theoretically predicted ratios. Here, the authors show that this discrepancy is higher than previously found.

An Earth-mass planet is found to have a white dwarf host—the final evolutionary stage of Sun-like stars. This system suggests that terrestrial planets in Earth-like orbits may avoid being engulfed during the red-giant phases of their host stars.

Presenting a series of interferometric images of R Doradus, this study reveals prominent convective structures on the surface of this giant evolved star that have a timescale of about one month.

Using JWST, spectral features have been detected in the near-infrared emission of distant galaxies. The observations address a long-standing controversy about the contribution of thermally pulsing asymptotic-giant-branch stars to galaxy emission, with implications for the calculation of galaxy ages and stellar masses, and for models of stellar population synthesis.