New Type of Elderly Giant Star Discovered in Milky Way

Dubbed 'Old Smokers', These Stars Can Sit Dormant for Decades Before Puffing Out Clouds of Smoke

Astronomers have discovered a new type of elderly giant star, nicknamed 'old smoker', at the heart of the Milky Way galaxy.
These 'old smokers' can sit quietly for decades, fading almost to invisibility, before suddenly puffing out clouds of smoke.
The discovery was made during a 10-year survey of the night sky, monitoring almost a billion stars in infrared light.
The team also detected dozens of rarely-seen newborn stars, known as protostars, which undergo extreme outbursts over a period of months, years or decades, as part of the formation of a new solar system.
The discovery of these 'old smokers' could change what we know about the way that elements are distributed across space.