Astronomers detect a new Ultra-Metal Poor star.
Gouri J S
As a result of the Southern Photometric Local Universe Survey (SPLUS), astronomers reported the discovery of an ultra-metal-poor (UMP) star. The star, which was found to possess the lowest carbon abundance among all the UMP stars discovered so far is designated by SPLUS J210428.01-004934.2.
The star was identified by narrow band SPLUS photometry and confirmed by medium and high resolution spectroscopy by a group of astronomers led by Vinicius M. Placcoz of NOIRLab (National Optical-Infrared Astronomy Research Laboratory).
UMP stars are extremely rare objects with iron abundance (Fe/H) below 4. Till date, 34 UMP stars have been discovered. Detailed research and studies of these stars have been found important by astronomers as it could be used to explain the chemical evolution of the universe. The early evolution of the universe is believed to be dependent on the properties of first generation of metal-free stars.
We report on the discovery of SPLUS J210428.01-004934.2, an ultra metal-poor (UMP) star first identified from the narrow-band photometry of the Southern Photometric Local Universe Survey (S-PLUS) Data Release 1, in the SDSS Stripe 82 region. Follow-up medium- and high-resolution spectroscopy (with Gemini South and Magellan-Clay, respectively) confirmed the effectiveness of the search for low-metallicity stars using the S-PLUS narrow-band photometry.- Researchers wrote
SPLUS J2104-0049 is found to have a carbon abundance of 4.34 and is supposed to be a second generation star which could have been formed in a gas cloud polluted by the by-products of evolution of a progenitor which was about 30 times massive than the sun with an explosion energy of one sexdecillion ergs. It is located approximately 16000 light years away from the earth and may have a mass of about 0.8 solar masses.
The assumed nature and origin of SPLUS J2104-0049 could only be confirmed by further investigations and the researchers also believe that this could open the possibilities of discovering additional UMP stars from narrow band photometric surveys.