A huge star just exploded in an unexpected way and scientists are baffled

Every now and then, scientists stumble across something out in the cosmos which defies expectation – and J0931+0038 is exactly one of those cases.

The catchily titled J0931+0038, nicknamed the “Barbenheimer Star”, is a strange star out there in the Milky Way which defies traditional definitions of celestial objects and has left experts scratching their heads.

Why is this the case? Well, the star seems to have formed following the explosion of a giant star at least 50 times the size of our Sun that existed billions of years ago.

However, when stars that size usually explode they’re expected to form black holes.

Only, this one definitely hasn’t, and it’s one of the most unusual cases experts have seen.

Its composition is just as confusing. The planet was first observed in 1999, but it wasn’t until scientists were able to observe its full spectrum of light in 2019 that people really started focusing on the star.

It turns out that the J0931+0038 is made up of a mix of elements which experts have never seen before, being both rich in nickel and zinc and oddly low in elements like sodium and aluminium.

Astronomer Alex Ji from the University of Chicago and Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) was the leader on the research which was accepted into The Astrophysical Journal Letters and available to read on arXiv.

"We've never seen anything like this," Ji said, adding: "Whatever happened back then, it must have been amazing. We nicknamed [the supernova progenitor] the 'Barbenheimer Star' for its spectacular nucleosynthesis."

In fact, the entire structure of the star has taken the scientists involved completely by surprise.

"Amazingly, no existing model of element formation can explain what we see," said research co-leader Sanjana Curtis, an astronomer at the University of California, Berkeley.

"It's not just, 'oh, you can tweak something here and there and it'll work out – the whole pattern of elements almost seems self-contradictory."

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