University of Warwick
Physics

Building more reliable ways to measure the ages of stars

Knowing the ages of stars helps astronomers understand how stars evolve and how planetary systems form and change over time. But stellar ages are difficult to measure directly. Researchers often estimate them using properties such as rotation and magnetic activity, which change as stars age. Even for stars similar to the Sun, these methods can produce uncertainties of up to 50% and sometimes give conflicting results.

Gabriela’s project will investigate why different methods for estimating stellar ages disagree and identify the conditions under which they provide reliable results. She will study carefully selected groups of Sun-like stars whose fundamental properties have been measured with exceptional precision. This provides a unique opportunity to test age-dating methods under controlled conditions, systematically comparing multiple age indicators across consistent, high-quality samples.

The project aims to establish a new set of benchmark stars and lay the foundations for a unified approach to stellar age estimation. Improved calibrations and openly available tools could support future studies of stellar and exoplanet astrophysics.