Astronomers Discover the First Known Green Star

Astronomers are excited about the news that the first green star has been identified. What does it mean, and why is the news so historic? Read on for all of the details of this celestial discovery.

Scientists Identify First Green Star

A new study published in the journal RAS Techniques and Instruments details that astronomers researching white dwarf stars have discovered the first green star. White dwarfs are what astronomers use to define the remnants of sun-like stars that have died. Up until now, there has never been a green star observed.

According to lead study author Mark Hollands, an astrophysicist at the University of Warwick, England, color is dependent on temperature for most stars. Hollands explains that, "The colors that normal stars can have are pretty much only orange, white or blue."

However, white dwarf stars can take on a wide variety of colors. According to Hollands, "there are some special cases where the physics in the outer layers of these stars are sufficiently strange that it causes actually quite big deviations in terms of their spectrum."

The changes in colors happen as a result of the interaction between the helium in the star's atmosphere and other elements. Each white dwarf star is unique in the material that it has interacted with throughout its lifetime, making the color combinations more vast.