Astronomers discover 'extremely rare' star
Chinese astronomers have discovered the most lithiumrich red giant star known in our Milky Way to date. Scientists said on Tuesday that this "extremely rare and interesting" star can help solve the mysteries of stellar evolution and the origin of lithium in our home galaxy.
The newly found giant star is called TYC429-2097-1, and it has 3,000 times more lithium than normal giants. The star, which has 1.5 times the mass and 15 times the radius of our sun, lies in the direction of the constellation Ophiuchus on the north side of the galactic disk, around 4,500 light years from Earth.
Scientists made the discovery using the Large Sky Area Multi-Object Fiber Spectroscopic Telescope located at the Xinglong Observatory of the National Astronomical Observatories of China in Hebei province. The telescope, which began operating in 2012, is the world's first optical telescope capable of observing 4,000 stars at once.
