White dwarf stars in the early Milky Way. Credit: NASA, ESA, A. Calamida and K. Sahu (STScI), and the SWEEPS Science Team; Credit for Ground-based Image: A. Fujii
Peering deep into the Milky Way’s crowded central hub of stars, Hubble researchers have uncovered for the 1st time a population of ancient white dwarfs, smoldering remnants of once-vibrant stars that inhabited the core. This can yield clues to how our galaxy was built, long before Earth/sun formed.
The white dwarfs contain information about the stars that existed about 12 billion years ago that burned out to form the white dwarfs. As these dying embers of once-radiant stars cool, they serve as multi-billion-year-old time pieces that tell astronomers about the Milky Way’s groundbreaking years.
An analysis of the Hubble data suppor...
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