--- title: Millions of Stars May Be Made of Nothing But Metal description: An astronomer has discovered that some stars — maybe as many as 1 in 10,000 — could be made entirely of metal. canonical: https://time.com/2956315/stars-made-of-metal/ author: Nash Jenkins article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-07-04T09:45:41.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-21T08:58:45.274Z article:section: Science og:title: Millions of Stars May Be Made of Nothing But Metal og:description: An astronomer has discovered that some stars — maybe as many as 1 in 10,000 — could be made entirely of metal. og:url: https://time.com/2956315/stars-made-of-metal/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blteabbdc8e9b3d9bb1/69869a9435ba6faf26c02e2f/rtr3s21l.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2200 og:image:height: 1238 og:image:alt: Handout of the evolving universe is shown in this composite of separate exposures taken in 2003 to 2012 with Hubble's Advanced Camera for Surveys and Wide Field Camera 3 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Millions of Stars May Be Made of Nothing But Metal twitter:description: An astronomer has discovered that some stars — maybe as many as 1 in 10,000 — could be made entirely of metal. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blteabbdc8e9b3d9bb1/69869a9435ba6faf26c02e2f/rtr3s21l.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Millions of Stars May Be Made of Nothing But Metal > Sponsored content. 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Future Proof is TIME's weekly climate and energy newsletter, written by senior correspondent Justin Worland. It connects the energy transition to the decisions reshaping business, technology, policy and markets. #### Where can I follow the energy transition as a business story? Future Proof covers climate and energy as an economic and business story rather than only an environmental one. It publishes every Friday and is free at time.com/newsletters. #### Who writes Future Proof? Justin Worland, a senior correspondent at TIME and an award-winning climate journalist, writes Future Proof. #### Is Future Proof free? Yes. Future Proof is free at time.com/newsletters. by [Nash Jenkins](https://time.com/author/p-nash-jenkins/) ## Nash Jenkins Jul 4, 2014 9:45 AM UTC  A composite of separate exposures taken in 2003 to 2012 with Hubble's Advanced Camera for Surveys and Wide Field Camera 3 of the evolving universe is shown in this handout photo provided by NASA, June 3, 2014. A composite of separate exposures taken in 2003 to 2012 with Hubble's Advanced Camera for Surveys and Wide Field Camera 3 of the evolving universe is shown in this handout photo provided by NASA, June 3, 2014. NASA—Reuters by [Nash Jenkins](https://time.com/author/p-nash-jenkins/) ## Nash Jenkins Jul 4, 2014 9:45 AM UTC An astronomer at the California Institute of Technology has discovered that some stars — maybe as many as 1 in 10,000 — [are made entirely of metal](https://medium.com/the-physics-arxiv-blog/new-class-of-stars-are-entirely-metal-a31b56839d84). It’s the latest finding in a series of eureka moments fueled by recent studies of turbulence, a term that [scientifically refers to](http://www.scholarpedia.org/article/Turbulence) “certain complex and unpredictable motions.” To keep an immensely complicated subtopic of fluid mechanics simple: in turbulent environments, we can witness something called “preferential concentration,” or the tendency of denser particles to gather together in concentrated regions. Scientists recently discovered that preferential concentration can explain how [raindrops are formed](https://medium.com/the-physics-arxiv-blog/meteorologists-solve-the-last-great-mystery-of-rain-d6c31c054e87) — by denser water vapor particles coalescing. It’s similar with stars, except in their case it’s elements coalescing in turbulent gas clouds rather than water. If the densest particles in gas clouds are metallic elements, and preferential concentration impels dense particles to gather together, then it logically follows, researchers say, that some stars — which, at the end of the day, are nothing more than matter held together by their own gravity — must be made entirely of metal. Of course, astronomers have yet to find one of these stars, but before the Caltech team released its research late last month, they presumably didn’t have much of a reason to look for one. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/2956315/stars-made-of-metal/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/2956315/stars-made-of-metal/"},"headline":"Millions of Stars May Be Made of Nothing But Metal","datePublished":"2014-07-04T09:45:41.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-21T08:58:45.274Z","description":"Astronomers have yet to find one, but until now they haven't been looking","url":"https://time.com/2956315/stars-made-of-metal/","keywords":["astronomy","stars"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blteabbdc8e9b3d9bb1/69869a9435ba6faf26c02e2f/rtr3s21l.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Nash Jenkins","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/p-nash-jenkins/"}],"articleSection":"Science","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blteabbdc8e9b3d9bb1/69869a9435ba6faf26c02e2f/rtr3s21l.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Handout of the evolving universe is shown in this composite of separate exposures taken in 2003 to 2012 with Hubble's Advanced Camera for Surveys and Wide Field Camera 3","caption":"Handout of the evolving universe is shown in this composite of separate exposures taken in 2003 to 2012 with Hubble's Advanced Camera for Surveys and Wide Field Camera 3","creditText":"NASA—Reuters","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/science/","name":"Science"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/astronomy/","name":"astronomy"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/2956315/stars-made-of-metal/","name":"Millions of Stars May Be Made of Nothing But Metal"}}]}] ```