Astronomers discover stars with carbon atmospheres

Artists' concept of the surface of the white dwarf star H1504+65, believed to have somehow expelled all its hydrogen and all but a very small trace of its helium, leaving an essentially bare stellar nucleus with a surface of 50 percent oxygen and 50 percent carbon. When this star cools, it may have a carbon atmosphere, like the stars newly found by University of Arizona, Canadian and French astronomers.(Illustration credit: M.S. Sliwinski and L. I. Slivinska of Lunarismaar) (Copyright photo by Sliwinski, M.S. and Sliwinska, L.I.)