German astronomers discover unusual stars that are covered in carbon and oxide, which were possibly formed through a rare stellar merger event.
Unusual Stars Discovered by Astronomers
According to the recent report from the Royal Astronomical Society, a group of German astronomers led by Professor Klaus Werner of the University of Tübingen, has discovered a two unusual starts that are covered in a by-product of helium burning.
These stars were discovered using data from the Large Binocular Telescope as well as the Large Sky Area Multi-Object Spectroscopic Telescope or the LAMOST Survey.
Additionally, the report provided information regarding the findings of PG1654+322 and PG1528+025, emphasizing that there is a possibility that these stars were formed through a rare stellar merger event.
Unlike regular stars, which contain hydrogen and helium on their surfaces, the stars identified by Werner and his colleagues had carbon and oxygen on their surfaces. In addition to that, helium remains on top, which is said to be an unusual composition for a star.
The concept gets even more confusing when the new stars contain temperatures and radii which show that these are still burning helium in their cores. This trait is usually more frequently seen in more developed stars than the ones studied by Werner and his team.
In relation to this, Werner, the lead author of the new paper, said that they usually expect stars with all these surface configurations to have already completed burning helium in their cores and already on their way to becoming white dwarfs.
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Gizmodo also added that the stars are dense and hot, with surface temperatures 10 times that of our Sun. Because they're made up of carbon and oxygen, which are created when helium burns, their surfaces are unique.
Since the star discovered by Werner's team is unique on its own way, a second publication, co-authored by astronomers from the University of La Plata and the Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics, proposes a theory for its development.
In an email, astronomer Miller Bertolami, the lead of the second publication, stated that they believe the strange objects observed by Werner could have been generated by an unique sort of star merger.
Bartolami added that their study suggests that a carbon-oxygen white dwarf might be disturbed and accreted by a companion under the correct conditions, resulting in objects like those observed by Werner et al.
Large Binocular Telescope
University of Arizona stated that the Large Binocular Telescope (LBT), which is now located at the Mt. Graham International Observatory, is the world's largest telescope as of press time. Astronomers all across the world utilize the Large Binocular Telescope, which was used to capture the first photographs of a planet in the creation.
LBT consists of two identical 8.4-meter (about 28-foot) mirrors mounted side by side on a shared, steerable platform. The telescope, which weighs 600 tons and is made of steel and glass.
The LBT, which is located in southeastern Arizona's Pinaleo Mountains, is under 11,000 feet tall.
LAMOST Survey
The LAMOST ExtraGAlactic Survey (LEGAS) and the LAMOST Experiment for Galactic Understanding and Exploration (LEGUE) surveys of Milky Way star structure are the two major components of the LAMOST survey.
A telescope with a big aperture and a vast field of view feeds a highly-multiplexed spectroscopic system, which is a revolutionary design of the LAMOST system. LAMOST is a reflecting Schmidt telescope with a north-south meridian optical axis.
