White dwarfs

This artist's impression shows the massive star Gamma Cassiopeiae and its companion, a small but dense white dwarf. Credit: ESA / Y. Nazé

Cassiopeia gamma mystery solved: Hidden white dwarf is the source of the unusual X-ray radiation

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New observations by the Japanese XRISM Space Telescope (XRISM) have shown that the intense, hot gamma-ray emission in Cassiopeia does not originate from the star itself, but from an absorbing white dwarf hidden in the system—thus
Artist's impression of space weather around the dwarf star M TIC 141146667. The torus of ionized gas is shaped by the star's magnetic field and rotation, with two dense, tightly packed clumps on opposite sides of the star. Credit: Illustration by Navid Marvi, Carnegie Science

Natural space weather stations may help understand what makes planets habitable

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Cold plasma torus around young red dwarfs causes periodic dimming – providing a “space weather station” to measure particles and magnetic fields from afar
VLT image of a stellar remnant creating a shock wave as it moves through space (Credit: ESO / K. Ilkiewicz and S. Scaringi et al.; Background: PanSTARRS)

Astronomers have recorded a mysterious shock wave around a white dwarf — and there is still no full explanation

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Observations by the Very Large Telescope in Chile reveal a “bow shock wave” nebula around a seemingly quiet, diskless binary system, hinting at a magnetic “engine” that is still not understood
Artist's impression of J1539+5027, a binary white dwarf system with a period of 6.9 minutes, consisting of a tidally heated white dwarf (in yellow) and its more dense companion (in blue). It is about to begin mass transfer. Credit: KyotoU / Lucy McNeill

Hotter than expected: Tidal heating “inflates” white dwarfs

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The binary star system V Sagittae – 10,000 light-years from Earth – shines brightly because a voracious white dwarf is devouring its larger twin. Credit: University of Southampton

A hungry star is devouring its cosmic twin at a rate never before observed * In a few years we will be able to see the supernova in daylight

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The V Sagittae system, 10,000 light-years away, is expected to end in a supernova so bright it will be visible from Earth during the day.
Mysterious "dark dwarfs" can shine forever by burning dark matter – and finding them could solve one of the universe's greatest mysteries. a href="https://depositphotos.com. ">Illustration: depositphotos.com

The stars that don't burn – they destroy dark matter

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Astronomers propose the existence of "dark dwarfs" - objects powered by energy from dark matter particles that can shine forever. Their discovery could shed light on one of the universe's greatest mysteries.
Illustration depicting the remnant of a star being thrown at tremendous speed into space from the scene of a supernova explosion caused by an interaction between a pair of white dwarfs.

Escape velocity: 2,000 kilometers per second – Research from the Technion reveals the origin of the fastest white dwarfs in the galaxy

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A team of researchers led by Dr. Hila Glantz and Prof. Hagai Peretz from the Technion found that a merger between special white dwarfs leads to a dramatic double explosion, leaving behind the remnants of stars that fly at dizzying speeds beyond the boundaries of the Milky Way.
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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