Interstellar chemistry: Blowing in the wind

Oxygen-rich stars may contribute more of our Galaxy’s chemical make-up than was previously thought.Many of the chemicals that make up our Galaxy are spewed out from old, evolved stars, and until now carbon-rich stars were thought the most likely contributory source. With more oxygen than carbon, oxygen-rich stars were expected to lock away carbon in the form of stable carbon monoxide and so contribute little to our Galaxy's chemical richness.
Lucy M. Ziurys and colleagues now report a variety of unexpected chemical compounds in the oxygen-rich shell of the red supergiant star VY Canis Majoris. The results suggest that oxygen-rich stars may be as chemically diverse as their carbon counterparts, and so are also likely to contribute to the chemical diversity of our Galaxy.

CONTACT
Lucy M. Ziurys (University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, USA)
Tel: +1 520 621 6525; E-mail: lziurys@as.arizona.edu

Sun Kwok (Hong Kong University, China) N&V author
Tel: +852 2859 2682; E-mail: sunkwok@hku.hk