With how many stars there are in our galaxy, there are sure to be plenty of different types of them. But they still continue to amaze us with their differences and constantly challenge our models on how exactly they form. Now a new class of stars was discovered by Dr. Klaus Werner of the University of Tübingen, and they are covered in different materials than expected.
Continue reading “Astronomers Discover a Strange new Star That Might be From the Collision Between two Dead Stars”Planet Found in the Habitable Zone of a White Dwarf
Most stars will end their lives as white dwarfs. White dwarfs are the remnant cores of once-luminous stars like our Sun, but they’ve left their lives of fusion behind and no longer generate heat. They’re destined to glow with only their residual energy for billions of years before they eventually fade to black.
Could life eke out an existence on a planet huddled up to one of these fading spectres?
Continue reading “Planet Found in the Habitable Zone of a White Dwarf”Astronomers Discover a Totally New Kind of Nebula
Most Universe Today readers are familiar with nebulae. They’re gaseous structures lit up with radiation from nearby stars, and they’re some of nature’s most beautiful forms.
With the help of amateur astronomers who laid the groundwork, an international team of astronomers have discovered a new type of nebulae around binary stars that they’re calling galactic emission nebulae.
Continue reading “Astronomers Discover a Totally New Kind of Nebula”White Dwarfs can Continue Burning Hydrogen, Even After They’re Dead
White dwarfs are supposed to be dead remnants of stars, doomed to simply fade away into the background. But new observations show that some are able to maintain some semblance of life by wrapping themselves in a layer of fusing hydrogen.
Continue reading “White Dwarfs can Continue Burning Hydrogen, Even After They’re Dead”From the way These Stars Look, a Supernova is Inevitable
Sometimes loud explosions are easier to deal with when you know they’re coming. They are also easier to watch out for. So when astronomers from the University of Warwick found a rare tear-drop shaped star, known as HD265435, they knew they were looking at a potential new supernova waiting to happen. The only caveat – it might not actually happen until 70 million years from now.
Continue reading “From the way These Stars Look, a Supernova is Inevitable”White Dwarf Measured Before it Exploded as a Supernova
Type Ia supernovae are an important tool for modern astronomy. They are thought to occur when a white dwarf star captures mass beyond the Chandrasekhar limit, triggering a cataclysmic explosion. Because that limit is the same for all white dwarfs, Type Ia supernovae all have about the same maximum brightness. Thus, they can be used as standard candles to determine galactic distances. Observations of Type Ia supernova led to the discovery of dark energy and that cosmic expansion is accelerating.
Continue reading “White Dwarf Measured Before it Exploded as a Supernova”How can White Dwarfs Produce Such Powerful Magnetic Fields?
White dwarfs have some surprisingly strong magnetic fields, and one team of astronomers may have finally found the reason why. When they cool, they can activate a dynamo mechanism similar to what powers the Earth’s magnetic field.
Continue reading “How can White Dwarfs Produce Such Powerful Magnetic Fields?”White Dwarf Atmospheres Might Contain the Pulverized Crusts of Their Dead Planets
Astronomers have developed a new technique to search for exoplanets – by looking for their crushed up bones in the atmospheres of white dwarfs. And it’s working.
Continue reading “White Dwarf Atmospheres Might Contain the Pulverized Crusts of Their Dead Planets”James Webb Will Look for Signs of Life on Planets Orbiting Dead Stars
Can the galaxy’s dead stars help us in our search for life? A group of researchers from Cornell University thinks so. They say that watching exoplanets transit in front of white dwarfs can tell us a lot about those planets.
It might even reveal signs of life.
Continue reading “James Webb Will Look for Signs of Life on Planets Orbiting Dead Stars”There’s a flash of ultraviolet just as a white dwarf is exploding as a supernova
Astronomers recently spotted a rare type of supernova explosion that was accompanied by a massive flare of ultraviolet radiation. Untangling the mystery of the UV flash could help unravel the mysterious nature of these supernova explosions, and even help us understand the age of the universe.
Continue reading “There’s a flash of ultraviolet just as a white dwarf is exploding as a supernova”