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Health & Science5h 0m ago
A new study proposes a model showing how escaping mass from the surfaces of sun-like stars leads to a series of "little kicks" during their final death throes.
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Pasadena
Who
Caltech's Jim Fuller, Kareem El-Badry
What
A new study proposes a model showing how escaping mass from the surfaces of sun-like stars leads to a series of "little kicks" during their final death throes.
When
Mon, 15 Jun 2026 21:40:05 GMT · 5h 0m ago
Where
Pasadena ·
Why
Blobs of matter are chaotically ejected from the surface of bloated stars in an asymmetric fashion, giving the star a kick in the opposite direction, as per Newton's third law.
The Frontline Impact
How this affects you
This model provides a physical explanation for an observed phenomenon where widely spaced binary star systems become less common after one star becomes a white dwarf, as the kicks can decouple the orbiting pair. This fundamentally changes our understanding of the end stages of stellar evolution and the dynamics of binary star systems.
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3 events in this thread- Health & Science5h 0m agoA new study from Caltech's Jim Fuller proposes a model showing how escaping mass from sun-like stars during their death throes leads to a series of 'little kicks.'Open article
- Health & Science5h 0m agoA new Caltech study proposes a model showing that escaping mass from the surfaces of sun-like stars in their final stages leads to a series of "kicks."Open article
- Currently Reading5h 0m agoA new study proposes a model showing how escaping mass from the surfaces of sun-like stars leads to a series of "little kicks" during their final death throes.