White dwarfs

This artist's illustration shows a planet (left) that came too close to a white dwarf (right) and was torn apart by tidal forces from the star. The white dwarf is at the center, and a nebula appears as blue gas in the background. The planet is part of a star system that includes another planet in the upper left corner and another in the lower right corner. The engulfed planet may have originally been a considerable distance from the white dwarf, but has drifted inward due to gravitational interactions with other planets in the system. Credit: CXC/SAO/M.Weiss

Planet-devouring star observed for the first time

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Astronomers may finally solve a decades-old mystery: A strange X-ray signal from a dying star at the end of its life may indicate that the white dwarf destroyed a nearby planet.
This image from the ALMA telescope shows the star system HD101584 and the complex gas clouds surrounding the binary pair. The clouds are the result of two stars that shared a common outer layer in the last moments of their lives. Credit: ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO), Olofsson et al., : Robert Cumming.

Dead and Alive: Astronomers Reveal Star Pairs That Are Changing Our Universe

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Astronomers have discovered for the first time pairs of binary star systems, consisting of the remnant of a dead star (a white dwarf) and a living star (a main sequence star), within young clusters
Solidifying white dwarfs. Credit: The Science website via DALEE

Challenging the Cosmos: White Dwarfs That Aren't Completely Dead

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According to the new paper, in some white dwarfs, the dense plasma in the interior doesn't simply freeze from the inside out. Instead, the solid crystals that form upon freezing are less dense than the liquid, and therefore want to float, then push
Artist's illustration shows a white dwarf star collecting debris from shattered objects in a planetary system. Credit: NASA, ESA, Joseph Olmsted (STScI)

Chaos and Destruction: A Dead Planet's Cannibalism of Its Planetary System Goes Further Than Ever Seen

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A white dwarf provides insights into the systemic chaos that occurs when a star dies
From ground-based telescopes, the so-called "ant nebula" (Menzel 3, or Mz 3) resembles the head and thorax of a garden-variety ant. This dramatic NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image, showing 10 times more detail, reveals the "ant's" body as a pair of fiery lobes protruding from a dying, Sun-like star. The Hubble images directly challenge old ideas about the last stages in the lives of stars. By observing Sun-like stars as they approach their deaths, the Hubble Heritage image of Mz 3 - along with pictures of other planetary nebulae - shows that our Sun's fate will probably be more interesting, complex, and striking than astronomers imagined just a few years ago.

The celestial ant that shoots laser bursts

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Early evidence for extrasolar planets in century-old photographic plates

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Artist's illustration of a white dwarf orbiting the pulsar PSR J2222-0137. It may be the coldest and dimmer white dwarf ever discovered. Figure: B. Saxton (NRAO/AUI/NSF)

A diamond the size of the Earth

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Evidence of extraterrestrial life may be revealed by analyzing the atmospheric composition of Earth-like planets orbiting white dwarfs (Figure David Aguilar, CfA - Harvard Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, Harvard University)

Evidence of extraterrestrial life may be found in planetary systems orbiting white dwarfs

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The European Southern Observatory's Vista telescope at Parnell in Chile captured this spectacular image of the Helical Nebula. Credit: ESO/VISTA/J. Emerson.

"The Eye of God" changed its color from blue to brown

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The supernova sn2011fe in the galaxy M-101 on August 25, 2011. Photo: Hubble Space Telescope

sn2011fe – bright supernova in galaxy M-101

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A diagram of the pulsar system and the planet PSR J1719-1438 which has an orbital period of 5.7 milliseconds at its center, and is surrounded by a planet compared to the Sun (in yellow). Image: Credit: Swinburne Astronomy Productions, Swinburne University of Technology

A star turned into a diamond

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The signals from the pulsar (behind) pass by a white dwarf and are amplified. Illustration: National Radio Observatory

Astronomers discover the most massive neutron star

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NASA discovered bucky balls in space

A NASA telescope has detected fullerene compounds in space for the first time

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A double star system is flawed in that both members of the system are white dwarfs. Illustration: University of California at Santa Barbara

An Israeli researcher from the University of California shared the discovery of a double star system containing two white dwarfs

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Dr. Avishai Gal-Yam and research student Yair Harkavi. Weizmann Institute

White dwarfs, heavy elements

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Comparison between the sun and a red giant. Illustration: User Aviad, Hebrew Wikipedia

Why some red giant atmospheres have more carbon than oxygen

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A merger of a white dwarf and a tiny black hole forming a new tiny black hole. Figure: SLOAN sky survey

An exotic source of cosmic radiation: mini black holes

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Cosmic scene with DNA, stars, solvents and atomic circles in oral flow.

A glimpse into the eye of God

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Cosmic scene with DNA, stars, solvents and atomic circles in oral flow.

This is what the sun will look like in 5 billion years

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Cosmic scene with DNA, stars, solvents and atomic circles in oral flow.

Hubble photographed four spectacular planetary nebulae

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Cosmic scene with DNA, stars, solvents and atomic circles in oral flow.

A white dwarf beats a red giant

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Cosmic scene with DNA, stars, solvents and atomic circles in oral flow.

The bright mantle of the center of the Andromeda Galaxy

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Cosmic scene with DNA, stars, solvents and atomic circles in oral flow.

The spectacular end of a star of the type of the sun

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Cosmic scene with DNA, stars, solvents and atomic circles in oral flow.

The Eye of the Helix Nebula (Eye of God) was formed by collisions between comets causing a cloud of dust

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Cosmic scene with DNA, stars, solvents and atomic circles in oral flow.

Where did the strange objects come from?

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Cosmic scene with DNA, stars, solvents and atomic circles in oral flow.

A diamond star excites astronomers

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Cosmic scene with DNA, stars, solvents and atomic circles in oral flow.

The dark secret of the dead stars

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Cosmic scene with DNA, stars, solvents and atomic circles in oral flow.

A cold giant and his warm companion

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