Recently, the team of astronomers from the National Astronomical Observatories of China (NAOC), and Chinese Academy of Sciences have descried the most giant lithium rich star. The giant star was found in the direction of Ophiuchus in the North side of the galactic disk, at a distance of 4,500 light years from Earth. The discovery is made using LAMOST (Large Sky Area Multi-Object Fiber Spectroscopic Telescope) located in NAOC’s Xinglong Observatory.
The star has 3,000 times more amount of lithium than normal stars. The mass of the newly discovered star is almost 1.5 times our sun. There are mainly three elements which are synthesized in the Big Bang- Lithium, Hydrogen, and Helium. The abundance of these three elements was considered as the strongest evidence of the Big Bang. Only 1% of giant stars have unusual abundances of Lithium in their atmosphere. This descry makes the production and origination of Li in the Universe fascinating, not only in the sense of Big Bang but also for the evolution of stars.
In modern astrophysics, the evolution of lithium has been widely studied but only a few lithium-rich giant stars were found in the past three decades. Because of this lithium study became challenging to the scientists. Lead astronomer at NAOC, Zhao Gang said that “The discovery of this star has largely increased the upper limit of observed lithium abundance.”
The team said that the described information of the star was obtained with the help of Automated Planet Finder (APF) telescope at Lick Observatory in the United States. The researchers admitted that the plentiful lithium might be a result of a special material exchange process that is presented in the interior of the star.
The origination of lithium has been a key feature in the research of the evolution of the universe and stars. This extraordinary happening was observed coincidentally with another short-term event when the star was experiencing its luminosity bump on the branch called Red Giant Branch.
Our universe is full of mysteries which are getting uncovered or the layers of secrets are now getting unveiled. This new giant-star has provided the great opportunity to investigate the evolution of universe and stars, which was very challenging till the date of its discovery.
