Context: Recently,a team of scientists from the Indian Institute of Astrophysics (IIA), an autonomous institute under the Department of Science & Technology (DST), studied numerous stars of the Omega Centauri and discovered Helium-enhanced cool bright stars among the metal-rich sample of the globular cluster.
Key Findings of the study

• Globular clusters are the stellar systems with millions of stars formed from the same gaseous cloud. 
• Hence, usually, the stars formed will be homogeneous in their chemical composition of elemental abundances. But, there are clusters which deviate from this norm. 
• One of them is Omega Centauri, the brightest and the largest globular cluster in our Milky Way galaxy.
• The different stars of Omega Centauri do not show the same metal content, a parameter that indicates its age, but a large range in it.
• Due to the anomalous elemental abundances, the formation scenario may be different from normal. 
• Normally, the abundances are derived using the assumption that Helium (He) is one-tenth of the Hydrogen-abundance
• According to the ministry, this is the first-ever spectroscopic determination of He-abundance in Omega Centauri.
• The study provides a very important clue for the origin of the He-enhanced population establishing that these are the second generation of stars formed from the metal-rich and He-enhanced material from the first generation of stars.

About Omega Centauri

• It is a globular cluster in the constellation of Centaurus.
• It is the largest globular cluster in the Milky Way at a diameter of roughly 150 light-years.
• It is estimated to contain approximately 10 million stars, making it the most massive globular cluster in the Milky Way.
• It is at a distance of 15800 light-years from Earth and is visible to the naked eye.
• A globular cluster is a spherical collection of stars that orbits a galactic core. Such clusters are tightly bound by gravity.
• Stars of a globular cluster are formed from the same gaseous cloud. Therefore, generally, all the stars in a globular cluster would be homogenous in their chemical composition.
• Omega Centauri is an exception to this rule. Its different stars do not show the same metal content.