Star HD 222925 is a cool and retiring star in the southern configuration of Tucana . It might look just another of the 100 billion stars in the Milky Way , but novel analytic thinking has let out that it is quite unique . It has the all-encompassing range of constituent witness in a star beyond the solar system .
Researchers have found 65 unlike chemical element present in the wiz and 42 of them are sound metals such as atomic number 34 , ash grey , tellurium , atomic number 78 , gold , and Th . These element are rarely found in stars and stargazer still do have not a precise manakin for how they take shape . But , as reported inThe Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series , the existence of HD 222925 might just vary that .
“ To the best of my cognition , that ’s a book for any target beyond our solar organization . And what makes this star topology so unique is that it has a very high comparative balance of the element listed along the bottom two - thirds of the periodical table . We even detected gold , ” University of Michigan astronomer Ian Roederer , who conduct the study , say in astatement . “ These component were made by the rapid neutron capture process . That ’s really the thing we ’re trying to study : the aperient in empathize how , where and when those elements were made . ”
laboured elements are created by the so - call " radius - cognitive operation " , or rapid neutron - capture process . This is a set of nuclear reactions responsible for creating about half of the innate elements in the periodical board that are heavier than iron . Iron is the expectant constituent bring out by standard atomic fusion .
The universal gas constant - process require a lot of vim and it has been proposed that some type of supernovae can provide that case of energy but models have always lacked something . In 2017 , the first direct observation of aneutron star collisionsuggested that these cataclysmal events can also create r - outgrowth elements .
And that ’s where HD 222925 is key . Its copiousness of weighed down element can be attend as a gold standard . The correct model , favoring one scenario ( a massive supernova ) , the other ( a merger of neutron stars ) , or a combination of the two , will need to be able to explain what astronomers have observe in this particular star .
“ We now have sex the detailed element - by - element production of some r - process event that occur too soon in the universe,”addedco - author Professor Anna Frebel , from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology . “ Any mannikin that tries to realize what ’s go on with the r - appendage has to be able-bodied to procreate that . ”
This work is a unanimous step in finally understanding how and where the r - process happens .
