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    Astronomers discover Micronovae, a new kind of Stellar Explosion

    April 21, 2022, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    This artist’s impression shows a two-star system where micronovae may occur. The blue disc swirling around the bright white dwarf in the centre of the image is made up of material, mostly hydrogen, stolen from its companion star. Towards the centre of the disc, the white dwarf uses its strong magnetic fields to funnel the hydrogen towards its poles. As the material falls on the hot surface of the star, it triggers a micronova explosion, contained by the magnetic fields at one of the white dwarf’s poles.

    A team of astronomers, with the help of the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope (ESO’s VLT), have observed a new type of stellar explosion — a micronova. These outbursts happen on the surface of certain stars, and can each burn through around 3...

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    Mysterious Energy Source unlike anything Astronomers have seen before

    January 27, 2022, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    An artist’s impression of what the object might look like if it’s a magnetar. Magnetars are incredibly magnetic neutron stars, some of which sometimes produce radio emission. Known magnetars rotate every few seconds, but theoretically, “ultra-long period magnetars” could rotate much more slowly. Credit: ICRAR.

    A team mapping radio waves in the universe has discovered something unusual that releases a giant burst of energy three times an hour, and it’s unlike anything astronomers have seen before.

    The team that discovered it think it could be a neutron star or a white dwarf—collapsed cores of stars—with an ultra-powerful magnetic field...

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    Astronomers have identified a White Dwarf so Massive that it might Collapse

    July 1, 2021, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    This illustration highlights a newfound small white dwarf that is somewhat larger than earth’s moon. the two bodies are shown next to each other for size comparison. the hot, young white dwarf is the most massive white dwarf known, weighing 1.35 times as much as our sun. Credit: Giuseppe Parisi

    Astronomers have identified an extremely magnetized and rapidly rotating ultra-massive white dwarf. Several telescopes characterized the dead star. Maunakea and Haleakala, Hawai’i — Astronomers have discovered the smallest and most massive white dwarf ever seen...

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    Can life Survive a Star’s Death? Webb Telescope can reveal the answer

    September 17, 2020, Categories  Uncategorized

    A planet orbiting a small star produces strong atmospheric signals when it passes in front, or ‘transits,’ its host star, as pictured above. White dwarfs offer astronomers a rare opportunity to characterize rocky planets. Credit: Carl Sagan Institute

    When stars like our sun die, all that remains is an exposed core—a white dwarf. A planet orbiting a white dwarf presents a promising opportunity to determine if life can survive the death of its star, according to Cornell University researchers.

    In a study published in the Astrophysical Journal Letters, they show how NASA’s upcoming James Webb Space Telescope could find signatures of life on Earth-like planets orbiting white dwarfs.

    A planet orbiting a small star produces strong atmospheric signals when it passes in front, or “tran...

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