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<\/p>\nStar\u2019s hue comes from special chemistry in its atmosphere<\/p>\n
There\u2019s a star in our night sky that looks a little ill. Or maybe haunted. Or both.<\/p>\n
Don\u2019t worry, though \u2014 it\u2019s neither of those things. But it does have scientists excited.<\/p>\n
For the first time, astronomers have identified a green star \u2014 known as WD J1330+6435 \u2014 in the Milky Way galaxy about 280 light-years from Earth \u200bin the constellation Draco.\u00a0<\/p>\n
It is a type of star called a white dwarf, but glows green due to special chemistry taking place in its atmosphere.\u00a0<\/p>\n
What \u2018s behind the colours of stars?\u00a0<\/p>\n
Typically, a star\u2019s colour is based on its temperature, with the hottest stars appearing a pale blue and cooler stars appearing orange. Stars in between are more white.\u00a0<\/p>\n
But then there\u2019s a different kind of white star, called a white dwarf.\u00a0<\/p>\n
They occur when stars die and stop emitting light through nuclear fusion, leaving behind their much smaller cores that instead emit their light through residual heat.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Although they\u2019re typically white, scientists have found that changes in their chemistry over time can turn them into other colours.\u00a0<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Although stars are typically thousands of times the size of Earth, the white dwarf stars they become after death are more akin to the size of Earth, but many times more massive. \u00a0Image credit: Scott Wiessinger\/NASA\u2019s Goddard Space Flight Center)<\/p>\n
The green star<\/p>\n
With our fastest spaceships, it would take many thousands of years to reach the green star.<\/p>\n
But thanks to telescopes, we can get a decent idea of what\u2019s going on with WD J1330+6435.<\/p>\n
“We first became interested \u2060in this white dwarf because bits of planetary material have fallen onto its surface,\u201d said astrophysicist \u200bMark Hollands of the University of Warwick in England, lead author of the study that identified the star\u2019s green hue.\u00a0<\/p>\n
That planetary material has enriched the star\u2019s atmosphere with elements like calcium, lithium and sodium.<\/p>\n
But it\u2019s the sodium that\u2019s the key ingredient to the green glow.<\/p>\n
Typically, sodium glows orange when it absorbs light, like the sodium in streetlamps.<\/p>\n
But Hollands said the density of the star\u2019s atmosphere is altering the sodium\u2019s structure in a way that causes it to absorb orange, yellow and red wavelengths all at once, mixing them.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat you’re left with is a star that has a beautiful chartreuse green glow, something that wouldn’t be possible for sun-like stars,” Hollands said.<\/p>\n
Other colours identified\u00a0<\/p>\n
The discovery was part of a larger project studying how various white dwarfs \u2014 151 in total \u2014 would appear to the human eye.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Turns out green isn\u2019t the only colour scientists found. Depending on the chemistry of the white dwarf, they found stars could be colours like purple, yellow, cyan and even pale blue.<\/p>\n
“In the end, it’s all very similar to the mixing of colours in the palette of a painter. They start with a few basic colours, then mix them together to form any colour they need for their painting,\u201d said Boris G\u00e4nsicke, a University of Warwick astrophysicist and co-author of the study.<\/p>\n
One star they examined\u2014 a white dwarf 48 light-years away named WDJ1011+2845 \u2014 was even salmon pink.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Unlike the green star, it was carbon that was responsible for its hue, not sodium.<\/p>\n
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With files from Reuters\u00a0
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