The stars they are the cosmic ferment of life. maybe that’s why Stephen Hawking He said that we must remember to look up at them: try to understand what we see and ask ourselves what makes the universe exist. And it is that, without a doubt, our origins (and the answers about them) are found in the stars.
That is why it is still valid to look at the sky with curiosity: we still have a lot to discover and learn from the stars. Thus, hundreds of astronomers are dedicated to investigating the night skies to decipher the secrets that our galaxy and its stars still keep, following Hawking’s wise advice.
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To start we can know some of the unusual stars that inhabit the Milky Waymany of which remain a mystery to science, as they break many of the rules that astronomers say should govern these luminous stars.
Now that if you want to digitally investigate the galaxy, you can do it in the Google tool 100,000 stars: a galactic journey from the seat of your computer.
An eternal supernova, the star Przybylski
In the constellation of Centaurus is this peculiar star, which is four times the size of the sun and whose chemistry questions the laws of the universe. Stars do not normally fuse any element heavier than nickel; instead, Przybylski does, despite the fact that the fusion of elements such as uranium is only seen in violent events, such as the birth of supernovae.
In addition, these are elements with a short lifetime, contrary to those that usually arise from nuclear fission. we exist thanks to the origin of elements such as helium and hydrogen from this phenomenon (and therefore, it is true that we are star dust). If all stars were like this, there might not be life on Earth as we know it.
The luminous spontaneity of the Tabby Star
Also known as WTF Star, an acronym that can be translated as «Where is the flow?», or also, in a game of meanings, as «What the hell?», the Tabby is a star with an unpredictable flow of light that it has fascinated astronomers since its discovery. Its brightness changes without periodicity, which has led us to think that there are comets that orbit the star and that produce these changes with the naked eye (that is, they do not come from the star itself). Furthermore, it is believed that it could be alien astroengineering that causes these sudden changes: a kind of energy megaproject of beings from another planet who want to harness the energy of Tabby (and that has a name: the Dyson sphere).
An old inhabitant of the Universe: HD 140283
Almost as old as the universe, this star is estimated to be over 13 million years old and formed shortly after the Big Bang. It is not of the first generation, since it is composed of hydrogen and helium, with very few metals, which indicates that at least one generation of stars preceded it.
Vega, the self-exiled
Vega is one of astronomers’ favorite stars, being the fifth brightest in the night sky, apparently because it is only 25 light-years from Earth. But it’s actually brighter than it should be, and it’s not yet known why.
To this must be added its ovular shape, which is believed to be caused by the rapid rotation of the star that distorts its shape, and which could cause temperature variations around its surface. In addition, its speed is causing a kind of self-exile from its original position, moving it away from Earth.
Stellar Cannibalism: HV 2112
When we refer to the HV 2112 we should talk about stars, and not from a star. It is a case of cannibalism, according to physicists Kip Thorne and Anna Żytkow, who have theorized about the phenomenon from which this could happen: when a neutron star is the product of cannibalism by a supergiant star, in what They call it a «hit and run.» They called it the Thorne–Żytkow Object, and so far HV2112 seems to be the first example of this phenomenon.
Look, the star with a tail
In «the whale», Cetus, is Mira: the brightest star in the constellation and which gives its name to other stars with the same variables. Among the most fascinating of these variables is the fact that it is a star that leaves a peculiar trail of matter coming from its extreme layers, which creates a trail of no less than 13 light-years in length, that is, about three times as long. distance that separates the sun from the nearest star.
The giant of the universe: Uy Scuti
This hypergiant is located in the constellation of the Shield, and is the largest star known so far. If it were our star… well, it would be more like our entire solar system, because due to its size it would reach the confines of Saturn. Its volume is 5 billion times the size of the sun. Of course, it is not the star with the greatest mass: it is even less dense than the sun.
* Images: 1) 100,000 stars; 2) Wikipedia; 3) NASA/JPL; 4) Digitized Sky Survey/NASA; 5) Steemit; 6) Casey Reed/Penn State University; 7) Science Magazine; 8) Wikipedia
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