Developments in Brief : A Fire and Ice Show in Milky Way Galaxy

UCLA astronomers have discovered a brilliant star in the Milky Way galaxy that is spewing fire and ice and appears unique among celestial objects. The star, pinpointed in the distant fringes of the galaxy, is about 3,000 degrees centigrade, but the gases it emits cool so rapidly that they freeze as their temperature plummets to within 55 degrees of absolute zero, or about 405 below zero Fahrenheit.

With most other stars, the temperature never goes low enough for ice to form, said UCLA astronomy professor Mark Morris. “That’s what makes it interesting, the superposition of fire and ice,” he said. “This star is clearly one of a kind because it exhibits a combination of characteristics that differ from any other stellar phenomena observed thus far.”

Morris and his team were the first to identify the unusual stellar body based on data gathered from the powerful telescopic eye of the infrared astronomical satellite that was launched in 1983.

Scientists at the University of Grenoble in France, working with UCLA researchers, performed the analysis that determined the temperatures of the star and the icy matter flowing from it. “There’s nothing else like this in the sky in that regard,” Morris said.

UCLA scientists have named the star Frosty Leo Nebula and estimate that it is about 1,000 light years from Earth, or about the equivalent of 6 trillion miles.