Burning Lithium Inside A Star
by European Southern Observatory/science Photo Library
Title
Burning Lithium Inside A Star
Artist
European Southern Observatory/science Photo Library
Medium
Photograph - Photograph
Description
Burning lithium inside a star. Computer artwork of a baby star still surrounded by a protoplanetary disc in which planets are forming. Using ESO's (European Southern Observatory) HARPS spectrograph, Sun-like stars which host planets have been found to destroy their lithium much more efficiently than planet-free stars. This helps explain the low levels of lithium in the Sun and provides an efficient way to pick out the stars most likely to host planets. It is not clear what causes the lithium to be destroyed. It is thought that the planets or the presence of the protoplanetary disc disturb the interior of the star, bringing the lithium deeper down into the star than usual, to regions where the temperature is so hot that it is destroyed.
Uploaded
September 13th, 2018
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