Scientists Discover Two Unusual Stars Covered In Oxygen And Carbon

Astronomers have discovered a pair of odd stars that are unlike any other stars they have ever seen before, and that are coated with a perplexing accumulation of peculiar compounds. This cosmic unusual pair may have come into being as a result of a very uncommon form of union between two stars that were at opposite ends of their individual lifespans.

A pre-white dwarf star is a star that is somewhat too huge to be classified as a white dwarf, but not large enough to be classified as a red giant. Pre-white dwarf stars are the heavy leftovers left behind after medium and tiny stars run out of energy to burn. Nevertheless, in contrast to previous known pre-white dwarf stars, these newfound stars, which have not yet been given a formal name, contain a large concentration of carbon and oxygen around their surfaces.  This indicates that they may eventually become white dwarfs.

These compounds are formed by the nuclear fuse of helium in the centers of stars, therefore the presence of these elements in the atmospheres of some stars is not uncommon. However, these elements normally touch the stellar surface just when a star is towards the ending of its life, once it has used up the majority of its helium reserves, and not before.

Although the size and brightness of these young stars remain inconclusive, it is possible that their centres are still rich in helium. According to the researchers’ estimations, they have been burning for a long enough period of time to have produced the quantities of carbon and oxygen measured by astronomers. As a result of the gravitational attraction between two stars, star mergers can occur in either star clusters or binary systems.  Nevertheless, in order to produce the new form of pre-white dwarfs, the star union that was necessary would have had to have been very precise.