Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul

Astronomers discover white dwarf with an oxygen atmosphere

3 April 2016 Astronomy Now

Researchers have discovered a white dwarf star with an atmosphere dominated by oxygen — a type of white dwarf that has been theorised to exist but not identified to date. The finding could challenge the textbook wisdom of single stellar evolution, and provide a critical link to some types of supernovae discovered over the past decade.

Charting the Milky Way from the inside out

7 June 2015 Astronomy Now

The Sun’s location within the Milky Way’s dust-obscured disc is a complicating factor when trying to determine the Galaxy’s four-arm spiral structure, but researchers are obtaining a clearer picture by mapping embedded star clusters using data from NASA’s Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE).

Astronomers find newborn stars at the edge of the Galaxy

28 February 2015 Astronomy Now

Using survey images from NASA’s Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, astronomers have discovered two clusters of stars forming thousands of light-years below the galactic disc — a stellar nursery in what seems to be the middle of nowhere.