Scientists spot elusive mini red giant stars, victims of stellar stealing

A tug-of-war between neighboring stars led to the formation of two strange types of red giant star, as seen in the eyes of a lost telescope. Astronomers reported finding 40 examples of two different varieties of slimmed-down red giant stars. Scientists expected that such objects existed, since red giants are often in binary systems next to the dense core of a dead star, called a white dwarf, that can sometimes be a greedy neighbor. (These mismatched pairs arise because red giants form together; then, late in their lives, each sheds its layers of gas to become a white dwarf.)

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