The Lithium Star

At www.dailygalaxy.com/my_weblog/2012/09/ … an image from the La Silla Observatory in the Andes (Chile) has picked out a globular star cluster, Menier 4, with an unusual star that the hyped press release claims has 'eternal youth' – an odd thing to say as they have only been looking at it for a short while. It is thought such star clusters go back to the very beginnings of the universe and the eternal youth appears to have a connection with its brightness. This is thought to have something to do with lithium. That in itself is a problem as lithium is supposed to decay over time – and the lithium here has not. So, the thinking appears to run along the lines of an old star (an assumption) but it has preserved a lot of lithium (so it must have found a way of preserving lithium = eternal youth). See also the same story at http://phys.org/print266047151.html