white dwarfs
Coverage of white dwarfs in the Nexus archive.
- Hidden stars found in Earth’s cosmic backyard
Four white dwarfs hidden by red dwarf companions within 65 light-years of Earth were discovered using Hubble's ultraviolet observations and radial velocity analysis. One, located 25 light-years away, is now the ninth-closest known white dwarf to the sun, revealing gaps in understanding of nearby stellar systems.
- The mystery of a dying star’s final kick
Researchers propose that aging stars receive thousands of small velocity boosts as they shed layers, leading to a final kick that alters their trajectories and can disrupt binary star systems. The findings, presented at the American Astronomical Society meeting, suggest these kicks result from asymmetric ejection of material during the red giant phase, with cumulative effects reaching up to 1 kilometer per second for resulting white dwarfs.