Journal article
Polstar—the role of rapid rotation in the evolution of massive stars and the galaxy
Journal of astronomical telescopes, instruments, and systems, Vol.11(4), 042235
10/01/2025
DOI: 10.1117/1.JATIS.11.4.042235
Abstract
Polstar is a Small Explorer mission designed to operate at L2 to study the role of rapid rotation in massive star evolution. These stars play a vital role in the creation of heavy elements and the injection of energy and material into the Baryonic Cycle that drives the ecology of galaxies. Massive stars often engage in the related activities of rapid rotation and binary mass transfer, but the detailed physics of those processes remains poorly understood because of the absence of suitably diverse observational constraints. The mission will leverage complementary information from far ultraviolet (FUV) spectroscopy and polarimetry to resolve existing uncertainties in the internal angular momentum transport and external exchange of mass and angular momentum involving massive stars. The approach will take advantage of high opacity and polarimetrically sensitive FUV resonance lines, as well as polarization from the temperature-sensitive FUV continuum. This insight will provide vital observational constraints on the impact rapid rotation has on the interior structure of stars and inform models that constrain their evolutionary tracks. The mission exploits advances in ultraviolet (UV) technologies from mirror coatings to detectors to birefringent materials to open a new window on the universe at polarimetric accuracies as good as 0.03% while achieving high signal-to-noise time-domain UV line diagnostics of bright stars at 15 km/s Doppler-shift resolutions.
Details
- Title: Subtitle
- Polstar—the role of rapid rotation in the evolution of massive stars and the galaxy
- Creators
- Paul Scowen - Goddard Space Flight CenterKenneth Gayley - University of IowaRichard Ignace - East Tennessee State UniversityJeremy J. Drake - Lockheed MartinRobert A. Woodruff
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Publication Details
- Journal of astronomical telescopes, instruments, and systems, Vol.11(4), 042235
- DOI
- 10.1117/1.JATIS.11.4.042235
- ISSN
- 2329-4124
- eISSN
- 2329-4221
- Publisher
- Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers
- Language
- English
- Date published
- 10/01/2025
- Academic Unit
- Physics and Astronomy
- Record Identifier
- 9985116168102771
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