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    White dwarf stars could create surprisingly common long-lived habitable zones

    August 31, 2025, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    A comparison between the white dwarf IK Pegasi B (centre), its A-class companion IK Pegasi A (left) and the Sun (right). This white dwarf has a surface temperature of 35500 K (Credit : RJ Hall)

    A new study by Manuel Barrientos and colleagues from the University of Oklahoma reveals that between 0.6% and 2.5% of white dwarfs in our solar neighborhood undergo dramatic cooling delays that could extend habitable zones for billions of additional years. The secret lies in an element known as neon-22, which, after carbon and oxygen, is the most abundant element inside white dwarfs.

    When white dwarfs contain at least 2.5% neon-22 by mass, they undergo a process called “distillation” as their cores crystallize...

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    White dwarf stars may host more habitable exoplanets than expected

    February 14, 2025, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    Woman standing with arms akimbo in front of dark space backdrop with stars and planets.
    Aomawa Shields, UC Irvine associate professor of physics and astronomy, headed a study comparing the climates of two exoplanets. Computer simulations led her team to conclude that white dwarf stars – previously considered inhospitable to life-supporting exoplanets – could, in fact, host planets in their habitable zones with comparatively temperate climates. Steve Zylius / UC Irvine

    Among the roughly 10 billion white dwarf stars in the Milky Way galaxy, a greater number than previously expected could provide a stellar environment hospitable to life-supporting exoplanets, according to astronomers at the University of California, Irvine.

    In a paper published recently in The Astrophysical Journal, a research team led by Aomawa Shields, UC Irvine associate professor of physics and as...

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