Stars destroy lithium ( Li ) in their normal evolution .
The convective envelopes of evolved red giants reach temperatures of millions of K , hot enough for the ^ { 7 } { Li } ( p, \alpha ) ^ { 4 } { He } reaction to burn Li efficiently .
Only about 1 % of first-ascent red giants more luminous than the luminosity function bump in the red giant branch exhibit A ( { Li } ) > 1.5 .
Nonetheless , Li-rich red giants do exist .
We present 15 Li-rich red giants—14 of which are new discoveries—among a sample of 2054 red giants in Milky Way dwarf satellite galaxies .
Our sample more than doubles the number of low-mass , metal-poor ( { [ Fe / H ] } \lesssim - 0.7 ) Li-rich red giants , and it includes the most-metal poor Li-enhanced star known ( { [ Fe / H ] } = -2.82 , A ( { Li } ) _ { NLTE } = 3.15 ) .
Because most of these stars have Li abundances larger than the universe ’ s primordial value , the Li in these stars must have been created rather than saved from destruction .
These Li-rich stars appear like other stars in the same galaxies in every measurable regard other than Li abundance .
We consider the possibility that Li enrichment is a universal phase of evolution that affects all stars , and it seems rare only because it is brief .