{"id":51045,"date":"2025-06-20T12:00:57","date_gmt":"2025-06-20T06:30:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=51045"},"modified":"2025-06-20T15:02:14","modified_gmt":"2025-06-20T09:32:14","slug":"extreme-helium-star","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/extreme-helium-star\/","title":{"rendered":"Extreme Helium Star"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><b>Extreme Helium Star<\/b> <b>Latest News<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Researchers have uncovered a cosmic twist in a star named A980 that belongs to a rare class called Extreme Helium (EHe) stars, carrying a surprisingly high amount of germanium\u2014a metallic element never before observed in this type of star. <\/span><\/p>\n<h2><b>About Extreme Helium Star<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is a <\/span><b>low-mass supergiant<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> that is almost devoid of hydrogen.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">These rare and enigmatic stars seem to <\/span><b>consist primarily of helium,<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> rather than the ubiquitous hydrogen that makes up the bulk of typical stars such as the sun.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">EHe stars are thought to originate from the merger of a carbon-oxygen white dwarf with a less massive helium white dwarf.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">There are <\/span><b>21 of them detected<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> so far in our galaxy.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">These have <\/span><b>effective temperatures<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> in the <\/span><b>range of 8000-35000 K.<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The first extreme-helium star, HD 124448, was discovered at McDonald Observatory in Austin <\/span><b>in 1942<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> by Daniel M. Popper of the University of Chicago.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3><b>Key Facts about Germanium<\/b><\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is a chemical element between silicon and tin in Group 14 (IVa) of the periodic table.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It has the chemical symbol Ge and the <\/span><b>atomic number 32.<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is a <\/span><b>silvery-gray metalloid,<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> intermediate in properties between the metals and the nonmetals.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It has a <\/span><b>diamondlike crystalline structure<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, and it is similar in chemical and physical properties to silicon.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Germanium is <\/span><b>stable in air<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and<\/span><b> water<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and is unaffected by alkalis and acids, except nitric acid.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3><b>Major Producers of Germanium<\/b><\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The major worldwide <\/span><b>producer of germanium is China,<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> responsible for around 60% of total production.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The remaining production of germanium comes from Canada, Finland, Russia, and the United States.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Source: <\/b><a href=\"https:\/\/www.pib.gov.in\/PressReleasePage.aspx?PRID=2137715\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><b>PIB<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Extreme Helium Star is a rare low-mass supergiant star type, nearly hydrogen-free, composed mostly of helium and heavier elements. Read more about Extreme Helium Star, Mystery, Properties, Latest News<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":51071,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[940,21,22,23],"class_list":{"0":"post-51045","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-upsc-prelims-current-affairs","8":"tag-extreme-helium-star","9":"tag-prelims-pointers","10":"tag-upsc-current-affairs","11":"tag-upsc-prelims-current-affairs","12":"no-featured-image-padding"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51045","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=51045"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51045\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/51071"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=51045"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=51045"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=51045"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}