Skip to main content
Go to the home page of the European Commission (opens in new window)
English English
CORDIS - EU research results
CORDIS

Explaining the winds of cool giant and supergiant stars with global 3D models

Project description

New insight into the winds of cool giant and supergiant stars

Life as we know it wouldn’t exist without stellar winds, which are fast-moving flows of gas and dust ejected from stars. However, scientists don’t yet know enough about stellar winds to be able to form a realistic picture of how they affect stellar evolution and help enrich the interstellar medium. Using a novel modelling approach, the EU-funded EXWINGS project intends to provide new insight into the winds of cool giant and supergiant stars. To do this, it will employ a recently developed prototype to generate radiation–hydrodynamical star-and-wind-in-a-box simulations. This will make following the flow of matter in full 3D geometry possible for the first time. The project will advance scientific knowledge on stellar and galactic chemical evolution.

Objective

Without stellar winds, life as we know it would not exist. Critical elements like carbon are produced inside luminous cool giant stars, transported to the surface by turbulent gas flows, and ejected into interstellar space by massive outflows of gas and dust. Direct evidence for this scenario comes in the form of dust grains produced in the stellar winds, and detected in meteorites by their isotopic composition. Nevertheless, the current understanding of stellar winds is far from sufficient to draw a realistic, quantitative picture of their effects on stellar evolution and their contribution to the enrichment of the interstellar medium with newly-produced elements and dust.

Project EXWINGS aims at a breakthrough in understanding the winds of cool giant and supergiant stars with a novel modeling approach. We will produce global radiation-hydrodynamical ‘star-and-wind-in-a-box’ simulations, based on our recently-developed prototype. For the first time, it will be possible to follow the flow of matter, in full 3D geometry, all the way from the convective, pulsating interior of a cool giant, through its atmosphere and dust-formation zone, into the dust-driven wind region. Extending our unique approach to the warmer, more luminous red supergiants, we will explore alternative driving scenarios for their still enigmatic winds, involving magneto-hydrodynamic waves and radiation pressure on molecules and dust.

The current progress in high-angular-resolution instruments, giving resolved views of the stellar atmospheres where the winds originate, presents an excellent opportunity for testing the new models. An ultimate goal is a predictive theory of mass loss and dust production in evolved stars, based on first physical principles. The results of EXWINGS will have a major impact on understanding stellar and galactic chemical evolution, on tracing the origin of building blocks for terrestrial planets, and on constraining physical properties of supernova progenitors.

Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)

CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: https://op.europa.eu/en/web/eu-vocabularies/euroscivoc.

You need to log in or register to use this function

Keywords

Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)

Programme(s)

Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.

Topic(s)

Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.

Funding Scheme

Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.

ERC-ADG - Advanced Grant

See all projects funded under this funding scheme

Call for proposal

Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.

(opens in new window) ERC-2019-ADG

See all projects funded under this call

Host institution

UPPSALA UNIVERSITET
Net EU contribution

Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.

€ 2 456 383,00
Address
VON KRAEMERS ALLE 4
751 05 Uppsala
Sweden

See on map

Region
Östra Sverige Östra Mellansverige Uppsala län
Activity type
Higher or Secondary Education Establishments
Links
Total cost

The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.

€ 2 456 383,00

Beneficiaries (1)

My booklet 0 0