The appearance of giant helium stars is clarified

2002/05/01 Elhuyar Zientzia Iturria: Elhuyar aldizkaria

• Astronomia

Scientists have long tried to figure out how huge helium stars form. Most known stars are hydrogen, including the Sun. Helium stars are very rare and no one knows how they were born.

Astronomers at Tohoku University in Japan, in collaboration with the astronomical observatory of Armagh in Northern Ireland, have developed a theoretical model that can explain the creation of helium stars.

Computer simulations have confirmed the previous theory. Simulacros have shown that the huge helium star is the result of the union of white dwarfs of helium and carbon oxygen. After the fusion the yellow giant is formed, a star with the outer layers of helium. Then it contracts and begins to heat. Warming has been observed in four observed helium stars, so scientists believe that this theory is true.

Although galaxies such as the Milky Way are known to be relatively frequent, astronomers have not yet been able to observe this association live. They even have nothing clear about what a union of white dwarfs would look like.