Stellar wind

A stellar wind is a flow of gas ejected from the upper atmosphere of a star. It is distinguished from the bipolar outflows characteristic of young stars by being less collimated, although stellar winds are not generally spherically symmetric.

Different types of stars have different types of stellar winds.

Post-main-sequence stars nearing the ends of their lives often eject large quantities of mass in massive ( \scriptstyle \dot{M} > 10^{-3} solar masses per year), slow (v = 10 km/s) winds. These include red giants and supergiants, and asymptotic giant branch stars. These winds are understood to be driven by radiation pressure on dust condensing in the upper atmosphere of the stars.

Massive stars of types O and B have stellar winds with lower mass loss rates (\scriptstyle \dot{M} < 10^{-6} solar masses per year) but very high velocities (v > 1–2000 km/s). Such winds are driven by radiation pressure on the resonance absorption lines of heavy elements such as carbon and nitrogen. These high-energy stellar winds blow stellar wind bubbles.

Latest News for: Stellar wind

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Hubble spots stellar sculptors in nearby galaxy

Phys Dot Org 14 Apr 2025
The inhabitants of this cluster are stellar sculptors, carving out a bubble within the nebula. NGC 346's hot, massive stars produce intense radiation and fierce stellar winds that pummel the billowing gas of their birthplace, dispersing the surrounding nebula ... Hubble spots stellar ......
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New sub-Neptune exoplanet orbiting nearby star detected

Phys Dot Org 14 Apr 2025
Using the radial velocity method, an international team of astronomers has discovered a new extrasolar planet orbiting a nearby star known as GI 410 ... Given that GI 410 b is located very close to its host, the astronomers underlined that it may have an active interaction with the high-energy radiation and the stellar wind particle fluxes from GI 410....
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Hubble spots stellar sculptors at work in a nearby galaxy

European Space Agency 04 Apr 2025
Image. ... NGC 346 is home to more than 2500 newborn stars ... The inhabitants of this cluster are stellar sculptors, carving out a bubble from the nebula. NGC 346’s hot, massive stars produce intense radiation and fierce stellar winds that pummel the billowing gas of their birthplace and begin to disperse the surrounding nebula ... [Image description....
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Five games left, five reasons Jokić may earn MVP

Fox31 Denver 04 Apr 2025
DENVER (KDVR) — Though he may not care about it, Nikola Jokić finds himself in a two-horse race for the NBA MVP this season ... Greatest statistical season in NBA history ... Team record ... It seems as though Gilgeous-Alexander and Jokić have been trading blows, each putting up stellar performance after stellar performance as the season winds down ... ....
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Melnick 39 is a colliding-wind binary system, observations find

Phys Dot Org 31 Mar 2025
Observations show that hot, massive stars are so luminous that their radiation can drive fast stellar winds with terminal velocities of 1,000–3,000 km/s ... In general, it is assumed that such powerful stellar winds are associated with three types of shocks that can produce X-ray emission....

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