Published on July 18, 2025
–
Updated on July 18, 2025
Dates
on the July 14, 2025
Discover the portrait of Andréa CHIAVASSA, CNRS astrophysicist, member of the Lagrange Laboratory at the Côte d'Azur Observatory.
Her research
At the Lagrange Laboratory (Université Côte d'Azur, OCA, CNRS, LAGRANGE), Andréa Chiavassa studies evolved cold stars, which play a key role in the evolution of the Universe. These stars release matter and energy via powerful stellar winds, enriching their environment with elements essential for planet formation and the appearance of life.
However, these winds are still poorly understood, particularly in terms of the mechanisms that generate them, their intensity and their link with the star's characteristics (luminosity, composition, etc.).
The PEPPER project aims to build a comprehensive and coherent model of mass loss in evolved cold stars . The major questions addressed are:
At the Lagrange Laboratory (Université Côte d'Azur, OCA, CNRS, LAGRANGE), Andréa Chiavassa studies evolved cold stars, which play a key role in the evolution of the Universe. These stars release matter and energy via powerful stellar winds, enriching their environment with elements essential for planet formation and the appearance of life.
However, these winds are still poorly understood, particularly in terms of the mechanisms that generate them, their intensity and their link with the star's characteristics (luminosity, composition, etc.).
The PEPPER project aims to build a comprehensive and coherent model of mass loss in evolved cold stars . The major questions addressed are:
- How are stellar winds generated?
- What physical and chemical processes determine their properties?
- How do wind characteristics depend on the fundamental properties of the star?
- What is the origin of the magnetic fields observed on their surfaces?
- How do wind dynamics and chemical processes interact?
His inspiration
"The depth of the sky, the vision of space and time from different points of view. Finally, the music that inspires and is inspired by all this. "
Her results and outlook
Using major French telescopes such as ESPaDOnS, NeoNarval or TBL (Télescope Bernard Lyot), data on the spectrum and polarity of starlight have been obtained, making it possible toto study the velocity fields at the star's surface and produce a 3D map of these motions, which are at the origin of the stellar winds, and therefore of the star's loss of matter and energy.
PEPPER has enabled more precise measurements of the magnetic field than previous work, and has highlighted the variability of the magnetic field over time, possibly linked to surface activity.e to activity on the star's surface or to stellar pulsation, i.e. seismic movements inside the star.
The project alsoexplored the circumstellar environment, from the wind-forming zone to the circumstellar envelope, to study the interactions between all the regions involved in the wind-forming process.
Want to find out more? Find out more
