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“Old smoker” is not a flattering sobriquet for anybody, but the name does fit the newly-discovered type of star it refers to — they are near the end of their life when they sit quietly for long periods of time before puffing out clouds of black smoke.
Astronomers on Friday revealed that they discovered this mysterious new type of star hiding in the heart of the Milky Way, according to AFP. During their 10-year survey, the international team of scientists behind the discovery were not looking for such old stars. They were using the VISTA telescope in Chile to look for newborn stars or protostars, which often erupt frequently.
They discovered 32 such newborn stars, which the researchers described as the “largest number anyone has ever found before in one batch.” But in the background was a “nice surprise” a lot more interesting — an old smoker puffing away in a densely packed and metal-rich region at the centre of the Milky Way called the Nuclear Stellar Disc.
The researchers discovered stars that were just doing nothing at all for extended periods before becoming 40 to 100 dimes dimmer, making them so faint they could barely be spotted by the telescope’s infrared vision. Then, some years later, they would return to their former brightness without any warning. The scientists propose that this is caused by stars throwing off puffs of smoke, even though they do not fully understand the reasons.
The leading theory is that the star’s brightness is temporarily obscured by puffs of smoke. This also makes sense since there are many more heavy elements in that region of the galaxy, which could create more dust in the star’s atmosphere. If the theory is correct, the amount of puffed out by the stars could help explain how heavy elements spread through the galaxy and beyond.
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