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Scientists have get wind evidence of a monolithic star from the other universe that does not correspond with our current understanding of the cosmos . The ancient stellar oddball , which investigator have dub the " Barbenheimer Star , " belike had a premix of element in its sum that has never been seen before — then , it pass away a on the face of it impossible death while deliver an equally puzzling champion in its post , a new study show . ( The name Barbenheimer is a character reference to the contrast flick " Barbie " and " Oppenheimer " releasing on the same day last year . )
Researchers uncovered traces of the Barbenheimer Star after take a confining flavor atJ0931 + 0038 , a remote crimson giant ace . J0931 was first discover in 1999 by the Sloan Digital Sky Survey ( SDSS ) — one of the heavy and most elaborated astronomical databases of the night sky — but had not been properly dissect until now .
The newly discovered Barbenheimer Star exploded in a supernova billions of years ago,leaving behind a cloud of unusual elements in its wake.
In a Modern subject area uploaded to thepreprint waiter arXivon Jan. 4 , researchers turned the SDSS telescopes in New Mexico back toward J0931 and capture a elaborated spectrum of the asterisk ’s light , which was afterward control by follow - up watching from the Giant Magellan Telescope in Chile . These spectrum revealed that J0931 seemingly had an super remaining metallicity , or chemical composition , with an unusually eminent tightness of heavy elements . ( These results have not yet been peer - reviewed . )
Using the fresh acquired datum , the enquiry squad pieced together how J0931 organise via a unconscious process known as prima archeology . This revealed that the star was give birth from the supernova remnant of an even larger star — between 50 and 80 times more massive than the Dominicus — that date back as far as 13 billion years ago , only around 700 million twelvemonth afterthe Big Bang .
The metallicity of the parent star ( Barbenheimer ) was in all likelihood equally as weird as that of J0931 before it bodge up , which would have been completely unlike from other known stars in the early universe .
J0931 is a red giant star that formed from the supernova remnants of the Barbenheimer Star.
" We ’ve never learn anything like this , " study lead authorAlex Ji , an astrophysicist at the University of Chicago , said in astatement . " Whatever happen back then , it must have been amazing . "
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J0931 ’s metallicity was strange for three reasons . First , the hotshot had unusually dispirited degree of lighter element such as magnesium , Na and atomic number 13 , which are usually more abundant in stars . secondly , it had an unusually eminent amount of midweight chemical element such as iron , nickel note and zinc . And finally , it had an " overabundance " of heavier element like strontium and Pd , consort to the investigator .
The Barbenheimer Star likely had a chemical composition that was unlike any other known star from the early universe.
" We sometimes see one of these characteristic at a clip , but we ’ve never before seen all of them in the same star , " report co - authorJennifer Johnson , an stargazer at The Ohio State University , say in the statement .
Most stars have the reverse metallicity of J0931 : They have high levels of lighter element and lower levels of midweight and heavy constituent . This is because stars are made preponderantly of hydrogen and helium , which immix together in the stars ' magnetic core to produce grievous element . These unexampled elements , which are much less abundant , eventuallyfuse into heavy and heavier elements .
It is therefore hard to explicate why J0931 has such and teemingness of heavy elements because it does n’t seem to have a high enough denseness of lighter elements to have make them .
" surprisingly , no existing mannikin of element formation can explain what we see , " said study co - authorSanjana Curtis , an astronomer at the University of California , Berkeley . It " almost seems self - contradictory , " she said .
J0931 ’s unusual metallicity would have partially been inherit from the ingredients that the Barbenheimer Star pitter-patter out when it exploded . This means that the parent sensation would likely have had a similarly inverted metallicity . This is even stranger , because in the early universe , stars should n’t have live long enough to have created such high-pitched concentration of heavy elements , the squad say .
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But what ’s even stranger is that the Barbenheimer Star should have never locomote supernova , the researchers publish . In theory , a star with Barbenheimer ’s predicted multitude should have collapsed into ablack holerather than exploding outward . At the moment , the study team can not explicate why this collapse did n’t happen .
The only agency for scientist to check more about the Barbenhaimer Star and its bizarre composition is tosearch for other similar astral oddballs from the other universeto uncover more pieces of this cosmic teaser .
" The universe directed this movie , we are just the camera crew , " study co - authorKeith Hawkins , an uranologist at the University of Texas at Austin , said in the statement . " We do n’t yet know how the story will stop . "
