At the heart of every white dwarf star—the dense stellar object that remains after a star has burned away its fuel reserve of gases as it nears the end of its life cycle—lies a quantum conundrum: as white dwarfs add mass, ...
Astronomy
Jul 30, 2020
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6186
The first direct evidence of white dwarf stars solidifying into crystals has been discovered by astronomers at the University of Warwick, and our skies are filled with them.
Astronomy
Jan 9, 2019
18
12582
A ring of planetary debris studded with moon-sized structures has been observed orbiting close to a white dwarf star, hinting at a nearby planet in the "habitable zone" where water and life could exist, according to a new ...
Astronomy
Feb 11, 2022
0
1569
Astronomers have discovered the smallest and most massive white dwarf ever seen. The smoldering cinder, which formed when two less massive white dwarfs merged, is heavy, "packing a mass greater than that of our Sun into a ...
Astronomy
Jun 30, 2021
3
4404
When a massive star reaches the end of its life, it can explode as a supernova. How quickly does this process happen?
Astronomy
Apr 10, 2015
10
226
The end of the universe as we know it will not come with a bang. Most stars will slowly fizzle as their temperatures fade to zero.
Astronomy
Aug 13, 2020
12
3832
Supernovae are among the most violent phenomena in the universe. They are huge explosions that end the lives of certain types of stars. These explosions release immense amounts of energy, so much that some can be observed ...
Astronomy
Jul 27, 2016
6
2216
Astronomers have used NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory to record material blasting away from the site of an exploded star at speeds faster than 20 million miles per hour. This is about 25,000 times faster than the speed of ...
Astronomy
Aug 19, 2020
35
5845
(PhysOrg.com) -- A massive white dwarf star in our galaxy may become a supernova several million years from now, and could damage the Earth and possibly destroy life on Earth.
This week, Nature published an article that could challenge the theory of stellar evolution.
Astronomy
Jan 12, 2018
18
1357
