QMC and the nature of dense matter: written in the stars?

We discuss the recent progress in calculating the properties of 'hybrid stars' (stellar objects similar to neutron stars, classified by the incorporation of non-nucleonic degrees of freedom, including but not limited to hyperons and/or a quark-matter core) using the octet-baryon Quark-Meson Coupling (QMC) model. The version of QMC used is a recent improvement which includes the in-medium modification of the quark-quark hyperfine interaction.