Scientists Found a New Kind of Star in Our Galaxy That Can’t Be Explained

Scientists have discovered a handful of stars that are inexplicably rich in phosphorus, a key ingredient for life as we know it, in our galaxy.

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Tau.Neutrino said:

Scientists Found a New Kind of Star in Our Galaxy That Can’t Be Explained

Scientists have discovered a handful of stars that are inexplicably rich in phosphorus, a key ingredient for life as we know it, in our galaxy.

more…

> 15 “chemically peculiar stars” in the Milky Way that show “very high phosphorus abundances” that cannot be explained by any existing theories

I’ll say. High in phosphorus is very peculiar.

My first question would be, are these sunlike stars or cool red dwarfs, or white dwarfs? Cool red dwarfs can be rich in peculiar chemicals such as methane and water.

> P-detected stars have not only very large P abundances but also enhanced O, Mg, Si, Al and Ce

So far so good.

> P-rich stars suggest that these stars belong to the old stellar population of the Galactic thick disk or inner halo.

Hold on. This doesn’t mean P-rich. This means rich in P relative to Fe. These stars have a low Fe content.

In the whole paper there isn’t a single word about where these fit on the H-R diagram. No spectral types are given. No indication is given as to whether these fit on the main sequence or not. Annoying. Without this basic information it’s difficult to draw any conclusions at all.