Tag Archive for 'White dwarf'

An artist’s impression of the triple star system PSR J0337+1715, which is located about 4,200 light-years from Earth. Image credit: NRAO / AUI / NSF / S. Dagnello.

Scientists Test Einstein’s Theory of Gravity on Unique Triple-Star System

Jul 5, 2018 by News Staff

In a new test of Einstein’s theory of gravity, a group of astronomers from the Netherlands, the United States, Australia and Canada has demonstrated...

This artist’s impression depicts IGR J17062–6143. Image credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center.

NASA’s Neutron Star Interior Composition Explorer Finds Pulsar in Ultracompact Orbit

May 11, 2018 by News Staff

Astronomers using NASA’s Neutron star Interior Composition Explorer (NICER) have found evidence that an accreting millisecond X-ray pulsar called IGR...

SMCN 2016-10a was discovered on October 14, 2016. Novae occur frequently in our Milky Way Galaxy, with a rate of around 35 each year, but SMCN 2016-10a is the first nova to have been detected in the Small Magellanic Cloud since 2012. Left: the nova system before eruption. Right: the nova system in outburst. Image credit: OGLE Survey.

Astronomers Discover One of Most Luminous Novae Ever

Oct 11, 2017 by News Staff

In a nearby dwarf galaxy called the Small Magellanic Cloud, astronomers have discovered possibly the most luminous nova ever. SMCN 2016-10a was discovered...

The recovered nova of 1437 and its ejected shell (false color). The now-quiescent star that produced the nova shell is indicated with greenish-blue tick marks; it is far from the shell’s center today. However, its measured motion across the sky places it at the greenish-blue plus sign in 1437. The position of the center of the shell in 2016 and its deduced position in 1437 are indicated with yellow and magenta plus signs, respectively. Image credit: K. Ilkiewicz & J. Mikolajewska.

Astronomers Pinpoint Location of Nova First Spotted by Koreans 580 Years Ago

Aug 31, 2017 by News Staff

On March 11, 1437, Korean royal astronomers spotted a bright new star in the constellation Scorpius. From the ancient records, modern astronomers determined...

The white dwarf star Stein 2051B (center) is 17 light-years away and the background star is 5,000 light-years away. Image credit: NASA / ESA / K. Sahu, STScI.

Stein 2051B Shows How Gravity Can Bend Starlight

Jun 12, 2017 by News Staff

The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope observed the nearby white dwarf star Stein 2051B as it passed in front of a background star. During the close alignment,...

This illustration reveals how the gravitation of the white dwarf Stein 2051B warps space and bends the light of a distant star behind it. The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope captured images of Stein 2051B as it passed in front of the background star. During the close alignment, Stein 2051B deflected the starlight, which appeared offset by about 2 milli-arcseconds from its actual position. From this measurement, astronomers calculated that the white dwarf’s mass is roughly 68% of the Sun’s mass. Image credit: NASA / ESA / A. Field, STScI.

Hubble Measures Deflection of Star’s Light by Foreground White Dwarf

Jun 7, 2017 by News Staff

The first observation of displacement of a star due to bending of its light by another celestial body other than our Sun is revealed in new research. This...

This composite image shows the central region of the Milky Way Galaxy. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / ESA / CXC / STScI.

Astrophysicists Solve Mystery of How Most Antimatter in Milky Way Galaxy Forms

May 30, 2017 by News Staff

Australian National University astrophysicist Dr. Roland Crocker and his colleagues from Europe, New Zealand, Australia and the United States have shown...

An artist’s impression of a white dwarf star (left) in orbit around a black hole and so close that much of its material is being pulled away. There is a hotspot where the gas from the white dwarf hits the disc of matter swirling around the black hole. The black hole itself is surrounded by a cloud of ionized gas, which contains large amounts of oxygen. Image credit: NASA / CXC / M. Weiss.

Astronomers Find Record-Breaking White-Dwarf-Black-Hole Binary in Globular Cluster 47 Tucanae

Mar 14, 2017 by News Staff

Using data from the Australia Telescope Compact Array, NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory and NuSTAR telescope, a team of astronomers has found evidence...

A disc of rocky debris from a disrupted planetesimal surrounds the white dwarf-brown dwarf binary system SDSS 1557. Image credit: Mark Garlick, University College London, University of Warwick and University of Sheffield.

Planetary Debris Disk Detected around White Dwarf-Brown Dwarf System

Feb 27, 2017 by News Staff

Evidence of planetary debris surrounding a white dwarf and its substellar companion has been found by a University College London-led international team...

This artist’s impression shows AR Scorpii. In this unique double star a rapidly spinning white dwarf star (right) powers electrons up to almost the speed of light. These high energy particles release blasts of radiation that lash the companion red dwarf star (left) and cause the entire system to pulse dramatically every 1.97 minutes with radiation ranging from the ultraviolet to radio. Image credit: M. Garlick / University of Warwick / ESO.

Astronomers Find First Ever White Dwarf Pulsar

Feb 13, 2017 by News Staff

Astronomers have identified AR Scorpii — a binary stellar system in the constellation Scorpius, 380 light-years from Earth — as the first example...

This artist’s impression shows a massive, comet-like object falling towards a white dwarf. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Z. Levy, STScI.

Hubble Finds Extrasolar Kuiper Belt Object Ripped Apart by White Dwarf

Feb 9, 2017 by News Staff

Astronomers have found the first evidence of the remains of a Kuiper Belt object analog scattered around a white dwarf star. The research was published...

This Hubble image shows DEM L71, a supernova remnant located 160,000 light-years away in the constellation of Dorado. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / Y. Chu.

Distant Supernova Remnant Imaged by Hubble Space Telescope

Aug 15, 2016 by News Staff

The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has taken a picture of the supernova remnant DEM L71, which is found in the constellation of Dorado. This Hubble image...

Astronomers Find New Type of Binary Star

Jul 27, 2016 by News Staff

Astronomers announced today that they have discovered a new type of binary star, in which a rapidly-spinning white dwarf star sweeps powerful beams of...

SDSS J1240+6710 (arrow). Image credit: S.O. Kepler et al / Sloan Digital Sky Survey.

Astronomers Discover White Dwarf Star with Oxygen Atmosphere

Apr 1, 2016 by Natali Anderson

A team of astronomers led by Dr. Souza Oliveira Kepler from the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, is reporting the discovery of a white...

An artist’s impression of the debris disc around J1228+1040 (left) at the same scale as Saturn and its rings (right). While the star has about 7 times smaller diameter than Saturn, it has a mass 2,500 times greater. Image credit: Mark Garlick, www.markgarlick.com / University of Warwick / ESO / NASA / Cassini.

VLT Captures Image of Debris Disk around Nearby White Dwarf

Nov 11, 2015 by News Staff

The sight of a massive asteroid being ripped apart by a white dwarf called SDSS J122859.93+104032.9 (J1228+1040 for short) and forming a debris disk has...

Left: a ground-based view of the Milky Way’s central bulge; giant dust clouds block most of the starlight coming from the galactic center. The Hubble Space Telescope, however, peered through a region (marked by the arrow) called the Sagittarius Window, which offers a keyhole view into the galaxy’s hub. Upper right: this is a small section of Hubble’s view of the dense collection of stars crammed together in the galactic bulge. Lower right: a sample of 4 out of the 70 brightest white dwarfs spied by Hubble in the Milky Way Galaxy’s central bulge. The numbers in the inset images correspond to the stars’ location in the larger Hubble view. Image credit: NASA / ESA / A. Calamida & K. Sahu, STScI / SWEEPS Science Team / A. Fujii.

Hubble Finds Ancient White Dwarfs in Milky Way’s Central Bulge

Nov 10, 2015 by News Staff

Using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, astronomers have uncovered for the first time a population of ancient white dwarf stars embedded in the Milky...

In this artist’s conception, a dwarf planet vaporizes as it orbits a white dwarf star. Image credit: Mark A. Garlick / Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics.

NASA’s Kepler K2 Mission Discovers Planet-Destroying White Dwarf Star

Oct 22, 2015 by News Staff

An international team of astronomers has uncovered evidence of a minor planet being torn apart as it spirals around WD 1145+017, a white dwarf located...

These Hubble images show elliptical galaxies with dark, wispy dust lanes, the signature of a recent galaxy merger. The dust is the only relic of a smaller galaxy that was consumed by the larger elliptical galaxy. The X in the images marks the location of supernova explosions that are associated with the galaxies. Each supernova may have been gravitationally kicked out of its host galaxy by a pair of central supermassive black holes. When two galaxies merge, so do their supermassive black holes. Prof Foley suggests the supernovae were stars that were once part of double-star systems. These systems wandered too close to the binary black holes, which ejected them from their galaxies. Eventually, the stars in each system moved close enough together to trigger a supernova blast. These outcast supernovae are located at various distances from their home galaxies. SN 2000ds (left) is at least 12,000 light-years from its galaxy, NGC 2768; SN 2005cz (right) is at least 7,000 light-years from its galaxy, NGC 4589. NGC 2768 resides 75 million light-years from Earth, and NGC 4589 is 108 million light-years away. Image credit: NASA / ESA / R. Foley, University of Illinois.

Astronomer Throws Light on Origins of Outcast Supernovae

Aug 16, 2015 by News Staff

Outcast supernovae that explode all alone in space present a scientific mystery. Prof Ryan Foley from the University of Illinois has developed a theory...

Gaia 14aae: Astronomers Discover Unique Binary Star

Jul 17, 2015 by News Staff

Using ESA’s Gaia satellite, a large multinational group of astronomers has discovered a unique binary star system: the first known such binary where...

An image from a simulation in which a Type Ia supernova explodes, as shown in brown. The supernova material is ejected outward at a velocity of about 10,000 km per second and slams into its companion star, as shown in light blue. The collision produces an UV pulse, which is emitted from the conical hole carved out by the companion star. Image credit: Dan Kasen, University of California Berkeley.

Astronomers Observe Supernova Smash into Companion Star

May 21, 2015 by News Staff

A group of astronomers from the intermediate Palomar Transient Factory (iPTF) has witnessed a supernova smashing into a nearby white dwarf, shocking it,...

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