white dwarf
Forget Betelgeuse, the Star V Sagittae Should Go Nova Within this Century
The star V Sagittae is the next candidate to explode in stellar pyrotechnics, and a team of astronomers set the…
This Star Has Reached the End of its Life
About 10,000 light years away, in the constellation Centaurus, is a planetary nebula called NGC 5307. A planetary nebula is…
This Star Has Been Going Nova Every Year, for Millions of Years
A nova star is like a vampire that siphons gas from its binary partner. As it does so, the gas…
A Guide to Hunting Zombie Stars
Apparently not all supernovas work. And when they fail, they leave behind a half-chewed remnant, still burning from leftover heat…
You’re Looking at an Actual Image of a White Dwarf Feeding on Material from a Larger Red Giant, 650 Light Years from Earth.
The SPHERE planet-hunting instrument on the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope captured this image of a white dwarf feeding…
348 Years Ago, a French Astronomer Monk Might have Witnessed the Collision Between a White and Brown Dwarf Star
A collision between a white dwarf and a brown dwarf created the object we call CK Vulpeculae. It was first…
Astronomers Figure Out How to use Gravitational Lensing to Measure the Mass of White Dwarfs
An international team of scientists has found a way to use white dwarf stars as gravitational lenses, which will allow…
A Brown Dwarf Prevented a Regular Star from Going Through its Full Life Cycle
A team of Brazilian astronomers recently made an unexpected discovery, a binary system consisting of a low mass-white dwarf with…
This is Kind of Sad. Astronomers Find a Failed Star Orbiting a Dead Star
A study by a team of international astronomers spotted something truly rare - a failed star orbiting a star near…
Astronomers Measure the Mass of a White Dwarf, and Prove Einstein was Right… Again
Using the Hubble Space Telescope, a team of NASA astronomers has repeated an old experiment that was used to confirm…