If you’ve ever wondered how many stars there are in the universe, we admit it’s hard to quantify. It is estimated that there are around 10 quadrillion of them.and for an idea, let’s stick with this information: There are more stars in the universe than there are grains of sand on our planet.
A group of scientists from Australia, the United States and Europe just found a new one, the peculiarity of which is that it became the smallest star yet discovered.
It is 2760 light years from Earth and is smaller than Saturn
Although he is crowned the smallest, his name does not respect his size: “TMTS J052610.43+593445.1” is its full name and it is located 2760 light years from Earth. It is only seven times the size of our planet, although it is smaller than Saturn.
This hot subdwarf star is part of a binary star system and has the shortest known orbit.
This discovery was published by a journal Astronomy of naturein the article where they describe in detail that the “new” star It is so small that the world’s largest optical telescope, the Gratacán, had to be used to discover it.which is right here in the Canary Islands.
Gran Telescopio Canarias is involved in the discovery of the smallest star observed in the known universe
Its technical name is ‘TMTS J0526B’#TN2Canarias pic.twitter.com/K62FGqyB8t
— Canary TV News (@RTVCCanarias) February 20, 2024
According to the calculations of astronomers The mass of this small star is one-third the size of the Sun and its temperature is around 2225 degrees Celsius.. Curiously, it is also so dense that its gravitational pull has warped its nearest star, named J0526B, leaving it with an ovoid appearance.
Binary stars, a common phenomenon in space
In fact, various studies have concluded that it is very common for stars to be born in binary systems. This is happening because When a huge cloud of dust and gas collapses on itself and begins the process of star formation, it is normal for two or more cores to form. condensates that form other smaller bodies.
Moose Experts believed that red dwarfs, the most common type of star in the Milky Way, were the smallest in the universe.and after this surprising discovery, that is no longer the case.
However, there is an even smaller category of stars and they are white dwarfs. Although they may be comparable in size to the Moon, they represent celestial bodies in the final stages of their existence.which have almost completely exhausted the hydrogen that accompanied them.
Link to news:
Lin, J., Wu, C., Xiong, H. et al. A helium-burning star seven Earth radii inside a 20.5-minute-separated binary. Nat Astron (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41550-023-02188-2
