white dwarf star – Astronomy Now

Smallest, most massive white dwarf on verge of collapse to neutron star

2 July 2021 Astronomy Now

Astronomers find smallest, most massive white dwarf, possibly on threshold to evolve into a neutron star.

Previewing the Sun’s fate: a white dwarf blazing in the colourful shroud of a planetary nebula

10 September 2020 Astronomy Now

The Hubble Space Telescope’s view of a colourful planetary nebula 4,000 light years away previews the fate of the Sun, showing a hot white dwarf illuminating the blown-off outer layers of its atmosphere.

Showing what’s to come when the Sun grows old

19 August 2019 Astronomy Now

The Hubble Space Telescope provides a look into the Sun’s future, imaging a planetary nebula in Orion that shows what happens when a star burns through its nuclear fuel in old age.

Direct evidence of white dwarf crystallisation found

10 January 2019 Astronomy Now

Using data collected by ESA’s Gaia spacecraft, researchers have found direct evidence that white dwarfs eventually crystallise as they slowly cool after running out of fuel.

Chandra captures expanding debris from Tycho’s supernova remnant

13 May 2016 Astronomy Now

Astronomers have observed the debris field from the supernova of 1572, now known as Tycho’s supernova remnant, with NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory and the NSF’s Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (VLA). By combining the X-ray data with some 30 years of observations in radio waves, astronomers have also produced a movie showing the expansion from the explosion is still continuing 444 years later.

Dying white dwarf star suffers “irregular heartbeats”

27 August 2015 Astronomy Now

Astronomers at the University of Warwick analysing data from NASA’s Kepler spacecraft have discovered a unexpected anomaly in the ‘pulse’ of aging white dwarf star PG1149+057. In addition to the expected regular rhythm of pulsations, the researchers observed arrhythmic, massive outbursts, which significantly heated up the star’s surface for many hours.

White dwarf star may have shredded passing planet

19 April 2015 Astronomy Now

The destruction of a planet may sound like the stuff of science fiction, but a team of astronomers has found evidence that this may have happened in an ancient globular cluster of stars at the edge of the Milky Way galaxy.