'Old smokers': Strange new type of star discovered in Milky Way

JANUARY 28, 2024
by Daniel Lawler



Astronomers have nicknamed the stars "old smokers"

Nearing the end of their life, they sit quietly for long periods of time, barely noticeable, before suddenly puffing out a cloud of smoke.

A mysterious new type of star nicknamed "old smoker" has been discovered hiding in the heart of our Milky Way galaxy, astronomers revealed on Friday. The "peculiar" puffing behavior of these stars has never been seen before in such red giants, astrophysicist Philip Lucas told AFP.

The international team of scientists behind the discovery had not been looking for such old stars during their 10-year survey, which took in hundreds of millions of stars across the sky. Instead, they were using the VISTA telescope in the Chilean Andes to search for newborn stars—called proto-stars—which are prone to frequent, exuberant eruptions.M

They spotted 32 proto-stars, "the largest number anyone has ever found before in one batch", said Lucas, a professor at the UK's University of Hertfordshire and lead author of a new study. But lingering in the background was a "nice surprise", he added.

More:
https://phys.org/news/2024-01-smokers-strange-star-milky.html