Astronomers have identified the first green star ever documented, a white dwarf 280 light-years from Earth that turned a ghostly shade of chartreuse after ingesting rocky debris from planets that once orbited it.
The star, named WD J1330+6435, sits in the constellation Draco. Mark Hollands, an astrophysicist at the University of Warwick who led the study, said bits of planetary material rained onto the star’s surface, enriching its outer layers with calcium, lithium, and especially sodium.
In this star the density is so high that helium atoms constantly bombard the sodium atoms, altering their atomic energy levels. That shift changes the light sodium absorbs, leaving behind the green glow, the researchers reported in the journal RAS Techniques and Instruments.
Green has long been the one color astronomers never credibly saw in a star. The team said no other star has ever been credibly reported as green, making WD J1330+6435 the first of its kind in the galaxy.
Source: Reuters
