This summer I spoke with science journalist Zack Savitsky, who wrote this in-depth article for NatGeo about our updated picture of magnetic stellar evolution, and what it means for understanding our own Sun and the chances of life in other solar systems. www.nationalgeographic.com/science/arti...

The Sun’s Magnetic Field is Behaving Oddly. Astronomers Still Don’t Know Why.

Scientists say our star might be in a midlife crisis of sorts. What does that mean for life?

nationalgeographic.com

Can someone explain to me how this pink data point validates gyrochronology for old solar twins? The age is 6-sigma above, and the Prot is 3-sigma below, the prediction! And the isochrone age is precise to 4%? 😂 ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2025ApJ....

Why are there so few points on this plot? Because we need: 👉 Stokes V snapshot with S/N~2000 (dipole field) 👉 existing measurement of Lx (mass-loss rate) 👉 existing measurement of rotation period All of this for stars near and below the solar activity level where WMB occurs. Help us add more points!

During a splinter session at #CoolStars23 last week, Jennifer van Saders presented our latest results to constrain the onset of antisolar DR in subgiants. youtu.be/fiq02okcFfM

Anti-Solar Differential Rotation May Have Revived Magnetic Braking in the Subgiant 31 Aquilae

YouTube video by Travis Metcalfe

youtu.be

If you missed my talk at #CoolStars23 last week, you can now watch the recording: youtu.be/q7Tsm3fYuSo

A Rotational Threshold for the Collapse of the Global Stellar Dynamo

YouTube video by Travis Metcalfe

youtu.be

I've been showing this plot in seminars for the past six months, and I finally decided to publish a research note about it (not yet on @arxiv.bsky.social, still stuck in moderation). Take a look: iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3...

👉 Tomorrow (May 6 at 2:00pm MDT) I'll give HAO a sneak preview of a talk that I'm presenting next week at Stanford "Stellar Evidence of a Collapsing Solar Dynamo" www2.hao.ucar.edu/stellar-evid...

SNEAK PREVIEW: after the collapse of the global dynamo stalls main-sequence spin-down for billions of years, physical expansion on the subgiant branch finally allows stars to reach the transition to anti-solar DR (~1.1 Ro_crit), restoring the large-scale field and reviving magnetic braking!

It took 10 years to trace Weakened Magnetic Braking back to it's root cause (the collapse of the global stellar dynamo), but next week at #AAS247 you can hear me explain how we did it in less than 10 minutes! Thursday, January 8th at 10:10am in room 222C. submissions.mirasmart.com/AAS247/Itine...

"Nature is so rich you are unlikely to look carefully at anything without learning something new, particularly in unexplored territory... do something nobody thinks is interesting. Trust me: it will be." ~Ed Nather whitedwarf.org/education/ad...

When I wrote this "Quick Study" on Weakened Magnetic Braking for @physicstoday.bsky.social in 2018, we already had the physical picture largely correct – we just didn't have all of the evidence in hand to support it. Now we do. physicstoday.aip.org/quick-study/...

The Sun’s magnetic midlife crisis

Old Sun-like stars observed by the Kepler Space Telescope spin faster than astronomers expected. Apparently, they experience a dramatic shift in their rotation and magnetism at about middle age.

physicstoday.aip.org

Looking forward to giving the LASP seminar this afternoon, 1:00pm in SPSC-N100 and on zoom (preview of an astronomy colloquium next week at NMSU). lasp.colorado.edu?science-semi...