‘Ex-smokers’ and newborn stars detected in Milky Way, study says

An international team of astronomers from the United Kingdom, Chile, South Korea, Brazil, Germany and Italy, A new breed of stars lurking in the universe, affectionately nicknamed the ‘old smoker’. In a statement, They also claim to have discovered dozens of newborn stars; Both discoveries were located in a remote region at the heart of the Milky Way.

According to a new study published in the scientific journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, The ‘old smoker’ is a type of giant, old red star detected at the heart of our galaxy.

The researchers explain that stars in this category can remain dormant for decades until they begin expelling plumes of smoke; Something that isn’t all that conventional compared to current standards of cosmology.

The research, led by Professor Philip Lucas from the University of Hertfordshire in England, used data collected over nearly a decade. From data obtained from the Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope (VISTA), scientists analyzed nearly a billion stars that emit infrared wavelengths. In other words, the discovery of the ‘old smoker’ was almost like finding a needle in a haystack.

“Our main goal was to find rarely seen newborn stars, also called protostars, as they undergo a massive explosion that could last months, years or even decades. These explosions occur in a slowly rotating disk of material that forms a new solar system,” said Valparaíso, one of the study’s authors. “It helps the newborn star in the middle to grow, but prevents planet formation,” said Dr. Zhen Guo from the University of California. “We still don’t understand why disks become unstable in this way,” he said in Chile.

newborn stars

For the first time, researchers have managed to detect this mysterious object at the heart of the Milky Way, known as the ‘old smoker’, which almost disappeared until it started emitting clouds of smoke. They also discovered newborn stars, or protostars; In total, there were 32 such objects with a brightness of at least 40 times greater; in some cases it glowed 300 times brighter.

Scientists explain that protostars were exposed to massive explosions during the formation of new solar systems. They cannot be seen with the naked eye as they are hidden by large amounts of dust and gas, but they become visible through infrared wave emissions.

As for the ‘old smokers’, they found 21 of them near the center of the Milky Way. The study’s researchers suggest that the discovery could help better understand how elements are distributed in space.

“Matter emitted from old stars plays a fundamental role in the life cycle of elements and helps form new generations of stars and planets. This was thought to occur mainly in a well-studied type of star called the Mira variable. However, the discovery of a new type of star that emits matter may have broader significance for the diffusion of heavy elements in the Nuclear Disc. [da Via Láctea] and in metal-rich regions of other galaxies,” said Professor Lucas.

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