white dwarf tagged posts

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...

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...

X-ray images give unprecedented view of extremely rare type of supernova. New information suggests that these supernovae start as compact stars that lose mass at the end of life. Calcium-rich supernovae are responsible for up to half the calcium in the entire universe. SN 2019ehk has the richest calcium emission of all known transients.

Called “calcium-rich supernovae,” these stellar explosions are so rare that astrophysicists h...

Hubble captures planetary nebula NGC 6326
Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA

The Hubble Space Telescope captured what looks like a colorful holiday ornament in space. It’s actually an image of NGC 6326, a planetary nebula with glowing wisps of outpouring gas that are lit up by a central star nearing the end of its life.

When a star ages and the red giant phase of its life comes to an end, it starts to eject layers of gas from its surface leaving behind a hot and compact white dwarf. Sometimes this ejection results in elegantly symmetric patterns of glowing gas, but NGC 6326 is much less structured. It is in the constellation of Ara, the Altar, 11,000 light-years from Earth.

Planetary nebulae are one of the main ways in which elements heavier than hydrogen and helium are dispersed into space after th...