Stars like the sun don't die in powerful explosions. Billions of years from now, the sun will swell into a red giant star.
In a desperate attempt to keep burning, the core of a sun-like star heats up significantly to fuse helium, and its diffuse outer layers swell.
On the Hertzsprung-Russell diagram, they are known as asymptotic giant branch (AGB) stars.
While each AGB star might toss less material into interstellar space, they are far more common than giant stars. So, the model argues, AGB stars play a greater role in the enrichment of galaxies.
Both models have their strengths, but proving the AGB model over the giant star model would prove difficult. It's easy to observe supernovae in galaxies billions of light years away.
Since the Webb's NIRSpec camera can capture high-resolution infrared spectra, the team could see not just the presence of certain elements but their relative abundance.
They found a strong presence of carbon and oxygen bands, which is common for AGB remnants, but also the presence of more rare elements such as vanadium and zirconium.
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