Scientists named the unknown star “Barbenheimer,” perpetuating a popular meme. Just as it is impossible to combine the stories told in the movies “Barbie” and “Oppenheimer”, the star of “Barbenheimer” constantly consists of impossible situations.

It should be emphasized that “Barbenheimer” exploded a long time ago. Scientists recently learned about the existence of this star and the consequences of its life with the help of indirect observations and simulations.

“Barbenheimer” remnants detected in the spectrum of the star J0931+0038. It is a relatively low-mass red giant located in the halo of our galaxy (not in the plane of the Milky Way, but much higher).

What have astronomers learned?

The chemical composition of J0931+0038 was so strange that scientists had to model the conditions of its formation. The most likely case was that the star J0931+0038 formed from a cloud of interstellar gas with an unexpected chemical elemental composition.

Strange chemical compositions of the star J0931+0038 (artist’s drawing) / University of Chicago Photography/SDSS-V/Melissa Weiss

Calculations showed that J0931+0038 must be a giant ancient star with a progenitor mass. 50 to 80 solar masses. The paradox here is that stars of such masses collapse into black holes, rather than dissipating into the cloud of matter synthesized in their surrounding guts.

All the synthesized matter of this star was supposed to be squeezed into a black hole, but it eventually exploded into a true supernova, shedding its envelope, which became the cradle of the birth of the star J0931+0038. Scientists can still somehow explain the individual facts of the observed phenomenon, but everything together remains an unsolved mystery.