In a study recently published in Nature Astronomy scientists from Indian Institute of Astrophysics (IIA) along with their international collaborators have provided a robust observational evidence for the first time that Li production is common among low mass Sun-like stars during their He-core burning phase.

Importance of lithium in our life

• Light inflammable, metal lithium (Li) has brought about transformation in modern communication devices and transportation.
• A great deal of today’s technology is powered by lithium in its various shades [remember Li-ion battery!].
• But where does the element come from?
• The origin of much of the Li can be traced to a single event, the Big-Bang that happened about 13.7 Billion years ago, from which the present-day Universe was also born.

Why lithium was thought to be different?

• Li content in the physical Universe has increased by about a factor of four over the life of the Universe.
• However, the rest of the elements carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, iron, nickel and so on which grew about a million times over the lifetime of the Universe.
• Li, however, understood to be an exemption!
• Current understanding is that lithium in stars like our Sun only gets destroyed over their lifetime.
• As a matter of fact, the composition of all the elements in the Sun and the Earth is similar.
• But, the measured content of Li in the Sun is a factor of 100 lower than that of the Earth, though both are known to have formed together.

So, what the new finding suggests?

• This discovery challenges the long-held idea that stars only destroy lithium during their lifetime.
• It implies that the Sun itself will manufacture lithium in the future.
• This is not predicted by models, indicating that there is some physical process missing in stellar theory.
• Further, the authors identified “He flash”.
• “He flash” is an on-set of He-ignition at the star’s core via violent eruption at the end of the star’s core hydrogen-burning phase, as the source of Li production.
• Our Sun will reach this phase in about 6-7 billion years.

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