Researchers find eight super-hot stars in the universe - each one a hundred times brighter than the sun

Created: 01/10/2023 17:21

By: Tanya Banner

Image from a "Survey of the Sky" centered on newly discovered star SALT J203959.5-034117.

Its blue color comes from its surface temperature of more than 100,000 degrees.

© dpa/STScI/NASA, The Dark Energy Survey |

Tom Watts (AOP)

A research team finds eight super-hot stars in the universe.

They are many times hotter than the sun – but they don't break the record.

Tübingen – Anyone who thought the sun was hot with its surface temperature of around 5800 degrees Celsius is not wrong – but things in the universe can get much hotter.

The latest research by a team led by Simon Jeffrey from the Armagh Observatory in Northern Ireland, which also includes Professor Klaus Werner from the Institute for Astronomy and Astrophysics in Tübingen, shows how hot it is.

The research team has discovered eight of the hottest stars in the universe, the results have been published in the journal

.

"Of the eight super-hot stars we discovered, the hottest was a white dwarf with a surface temperature of 180,000 degrees," Werner said in a statement.

The other stars are also hotter than 100,000 degrees, according to the University of Tübingen.

Newly discovered stars are all hotter than 100,000 degrees

The researchers found the hot stars using the Southern African Large Telescope (SALT), which is about 400 kilometers northeast of Cape Town.

The team studied data the telescope had collected on helium-rich hot subdwarfs when they spotted the superhot stars.

“White dwarfs are roughly the size of Earth, but a million times more massive.

They are the densest existing stars that consist of normal matter," explains astrophysicist Werner and continues: "Their direct ancestors, the so-called sub-dwarfs, are somewhat larger.

They contract and become white dwarfs within a few thousand years.” According to Werner, both hot subdwarfs and white dwarfs can have high surface temperatures.

Look into the depths of the universe - This is how "Hubble" sees the universe

View photo gallery

Each star is a hundred times brighter than the sun

Each of the eight newly discovered stars is said to be more than a hundred times brighter than the sun.

However, since they are between 1,500 and 22,000 light-years from Earth, they cannot be seen in the sky with the naked eye.

"All of these stars are in a very advanced stage of their life cycle and are approaching death as white dwarfs," says Werner, who is certain: "The results could also shed new light on the formation of our galaxy."

also read

Investigations into missing Emanuela Orlandi for the first time: Pressure on the Vatican is growing – Gänswein is also affected

TO READ

"Zombie drug" covers the USA: Xylazine leads to amputations - no antidote in sight

TO READ

Researchers discover the oldest known DNA to date - and are surprised by the creatures that match it

TO READ

Autopsies show: Corona affects the whole body - possible explanation for Long Covid

TO READ

Borderline: when love for dogs becomes pathological

TO READ

Fancy a journey of discovery?

My space

Stars with temperatures of 100,000 degrees or more are exceedingly rare.

"The discovery of extremely hot stars surprised us," explains co-author Itumeleng Monageng from the University of Cape Town.

"It was also surprising that so many such objects were found during our survey of the sky," says study leader Jeffery, classifying the results: "These discoveries will be helpful to better understand the late phases of stellar development."

The surface of the hottest star is almost 200,000 degrees Celsius

However, the new discoveries cannot trump the previous record holder as the hottest star: The star H1504+65 with a surface temperature of almost 200,000 degrees Celsius is still the hottest known star.

He has been in the Guinness Book of Records since 2004.

(tab)