Super-AGB Stars: the Missing Link?

There is a class of stars (between about 7 and 13 solar masses) whose complex behaviour has challenged computational capabilities and hence has been ignored until now. The tools to study these stars are just being developed now, and we believe that these stars may provide the missing link to a number of long-standing problems. In particular, our preliminary calculations indicate that they may explain the strange compositions of globular cluster stars, and they may end their lives as a kind of supernova that has also been largely ignored. There are many scientific rewards waiting for this work to be done.