Mar Carretero-Castrillo, a predoctoral researcher of the Institute of Cosmos Sciences of the University of Barcelona and the Institute of Space Studies of Catalonia (ICCUB-IEEC), has been named a finalist for the 2024 La Vanguardia Science Award. This recognition follows her role as the first author of the groundbreaking discovery of numerous massive runaway stars in the Milky Way, alongside Drs. Marc Ribó and Josep M. Paredes, a finding that offers new insight into the stellar evolution of massive stars.
The discovery, made possible through data from the European Space Agency’s Gaia mission, identified a population of massive runaway stars that have been ejected from their birthplaces due to changes in gravitational forces, travelling at high velocities within the galaxy. These findings provide vital clues to understanding the critical processes in massive stellar evolution that lead to their ejection from stellar clusters or from binary systems after supernova explosions.
Mar Carretero-Castrillo, who leads the study, emphasised the importance of these discoveries: “the identification of so many massive runaway stars opens the door to discover new interesting astrophysical sources. We have released the catalogues of the runaway stars found in open format to the scientific community to maximise the exploitation of the potential discoveries”.
This groundbreaking research not only expands our understanding of massive star dynamics but also sets the stage for further investigations into high-energy systems associated with runaway stars.
In recognition of her pioneering research, Mar Carretero-Castrillo has been selected as a finalist for the La Vanguardia Science Award, which aims to honour women leading scientific contributions across Spain and help reduce the gender gap in science. The award celebrates research that drives innovation and enhances global understanding.
La Vanguardia and the Fundació Catalunya La Pedrera, which have jointly organized the award since 2011, invite readers to choose the winning research in a vote that will be open until Sunday, October 20.
The prize will be awarded to the three researchers that receive the most votes and will be presented at an event open to the public, which will be held on November 27, in La Pedrera.
For more information about Mar Carretero-Castrillo’s study, please visit the following website or the original article “Galactic runaway O and Be stars found using Gaia DR3⋆” .
