Twinkle, twinkle, littlest star: Universe's smallest star discovered
The smallest star ever recorded — one about the size of Saturn — has been discovered by a team of astronomers, according to a study released Tuesday.With the unwieldy name of EBLM J0555-57Ab, the star is located some 600 light-years away in our Milky Way galaxy.
The star is probably as small as stars can be, astronomers say, since it has just enough mass for the hydrogen fusion process to take place. (This is the process that powers stars like our sun, which creates the heat and light that sustains all life on Earth.)
If the star were any smaller, the pressure at the center of the star would no longer be sufficient enough to enable this process to take place.
