Australian astronomers have discovered a thinner or smaller type of “red giant” star, and they believe that a neighboring star is sucking its mass away, in a similar way to a space diet..
And Mail Online stated that experts had expected the existence of this phenomenon, but this is the first evidence of its existence.
They said that this discovery represents an important step in understanding the life of stars in the Milky Way.
The scientist Yaguang Lee, of the University of Sydney, said that the scientists were fortunate; Because they found about 40 of the skinniest Red Giants, hiding in a sea of ordinary “Red Giants”..
Our cosmic galaxy contains millions of brilliant and luminous “red giants” – which is what our sun will become in four billion years..
But the thinnest stars have undergone significant weight loss, which scientists believe may be due to a greedy neighbor attached to it absorbing its mass..
The research team analyzed archival data from NASA’s Kepler space telescope.
What is a red giant?
A red giant star is a star in the last stage of its life.
As hydrogen fusion reactions become less efficient in the core, and as gravity collapses in the core, fusion reactions occur in the atmosphere surrounding the core..
This increases the star’s luminosity dramatically (up to 1,000 times that of the Sun) and causes it to expand.
After another few million years, the star evolves into a white dwarf planetary nebula system, then transitions to the entire red giant star phase..