"Astronomers Uncover Ancient Smoking Stars in Milky Way's Core"

Astronomers have discovered a group of giant elderly stars, dubbed "old smokers," at the center of the Milky Way emitting solar system-sized clouds of dust and gas. These stars, previously faded to near invisibility, suddenly release vast clouds of smoke, a phenomenon attributed to convection currents and instabilities within the stars. The discovery, made during a 10-year survey of almost a billion stars in infrared light, has wider implications for the spread of heavy elements in the nuclear disc and metal-rich regions of other galaxies.