Astronomers have spotted a star with an unique mix of chemical elements in the Milky Way's halo, suggesting that stars in the Galaxy's outer reaches are more varied than previously believed.
David Lai of the University of California, Santa Cruz, and his colleagues studied 27 stars in the Galactic outer halo, some 50,000 light years from Earth and beyond. Spectral analysis of one star's light showed that it contains high amounts of calcium relative to other elements such as iron and magnesium.
The authors say that the star may have been accreted into the outer halo from another nearby star system, suggesting that the Galaxy's history is more dynamic than thought.
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Astronomy: Strange star. Nature 459, 142 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1038/459142c
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/459142c
