2008/10/01 by Sydney A. Barnes
Engineering · Physics and Astronomy · #Astronomy and Astrophysical Research #Field (mathematics) #Identification (biology) #Main sequence #Sequence (biology) #Space Technology and Applications #Star (game theory) #Stars #Stellar evolution #Stellar, planetary, and galactic studies #astro-ph.SR
paper · pdf · doi:10.1017/s1743921309032001
10 pages, 6 figures, presented at IAU258, Ages of Stars
openalex publication_date 2008/10/01 · arxiv created 2009/06/12 · arxiv updated 2015/05/13 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
Abstract The construction of all age indicators consists of certain basic steps which lead to the identification of the properties desirable for stellar age indicators. Prior age indicators for main sequence field stars possess only some of these properties. The measured rotation periods of cool stars are particularly useful in this respect because they have well-defined dependencies that allow stellar ages to be determined with ~20% errors. This method, called gyrochronology, is explained informally in this talk, shown to have the desired properties, compared to prior methods, and used to derive ages for samples of main sequence field stars.