white dwarfs

A fanciful piece of art depicting the four-planet system of HR 8799 (the planets are much farther apart than pictured, though future interactions may bring them closer together). Credit: University of Warwick/Mark Garlick
The ultimate fate of a nearby four-planet system: cosmic pinball, then game over
Phil Plait
Trending on SYFY WIRE in white dwarfs
Tag: Bad Astronomy
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Tag: Exoplanets
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Tag: planetary nebula

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Tag: Supernova
How far away are supernovae? Astronomers find a way to tighten measurements
Phil Plait
Jun 15, 2021
The expanding debris from Kepler's Supernova in 1604, a Type Ia explosion of a white dwarf in the Milky Way galaxy. Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/SAO/D.Patnaude, Optical: DSS
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Tag: globular clusters
Wait: Do black holes *really* swarm in the core of globular cluster NGC 6397?
Phil Plait
May 20, 2021
Artwork based on a real Hubble observation of NGC 6397 showing black holes swarming in its core. Credit: ESA/Hubble, N. Bartmann / modified slightly by Phil Plait
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Tag: planetary nebula
A star that lived, then died, then lived again, then died for real
Phil Plait
Apr 28, 2021
Hubble image of Abell 78, a dying star that cast of its outer layers to form a planetary nebula. It underwent a late pulse of energy, sending blobs of gas outward at high speeds. Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, M. Guerrero. Acknowledgement: Judy Schmidt
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Tag: Exoplanets
Can a planet be bigger than its star?
Phil Plait
Feb 17, 2021
Artwork depicting the white dwarf WD 1856 and its massive planet, far larger than the star itself. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center
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Eclipsing binary white dwarfs, weird mergers, and peculiar supernovae
Phil Plait
Feb 9, 2021
Sgr A East (the blue glow to the left showing X-rays) is debris expanding away from an unusual kind of supernova called a Type Iax, when two white dwarfs merge and explode.
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Tag: Universe
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Physicist predicts the 'mindboggling' number of years before the universe ends
Jeff Spry
Aug 17, 2020
time hero
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Tag: Pulsars
Gargantuan objects in space fall just like Einstein predicted they would - even pulsars
Elizabeth Rayne
Jun 12, 2020
pulsar
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Tag: Pulsars
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Got lithium? Thank a long-gone explodey white dwarf
Phil Plait
Jun 2, 2020
Artist's drawing of the RS Ophiuchi system, a recurring nova, where a white dwarf is accumulating matter from a star orbiting it. Credit: David Hardy & PPARC
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Tag: neutron stars
A dead star's spin is dragging the fabric of spacetime along with it
Phil Plait
Feb 4, 2020
Artwork of a pulsar emitting beams of energy as it orbits a white dwarf; the warping of spacetime is depicted as the change in an imaginary grid around them. The pulsar is not to scale; the white dwarf is hundreds of times larger. ESO/L. Calçada
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Tag: neutron stars
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A white dwarf is cooking a giant planet and slowly eating it
Phil Plait
Dec 5, 2019
Artwork depicting a white dwarf evaporating a close-orbiting giant planet, with some of that material forming a disk around the dead star. Credit: ESO/M. Kornmesser
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Tag: Pulsars
The most compact accreting binary X-ray millisecond pulsar ever!
Phil Plait
Jun 20, 2019
Artwork depicting a millisecond pulsar, sped up to phenomenal rotation rates by material it's eating from its companion star. Credit: NASA / GSFC SVS / Dana Berry
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Making a supernova the hard way: Tossing a white dwarf into a black hole
Phil Plait
May 30, 2019
Artist’s impression of a white dwarf having matter siphoned off by a black hole. Credit: NASA/CXC/M.Weiss
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Tag: planetary nebula
Gorgeousness in death
Phil Plait
Feb 15, 2019
The planetary nebula Abell 36, the glowing gas thrown off by a nearby dying star. Credit: ESO
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The sun is destined to turn into a gargantuan crystal ball after it dies
Elizabeth Rayne
Jan 11, 2019
ESA image of a crystallized white dwarf
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A dead star is eating its planets
Phil Plait
Jul 25, 2018
Artwork depicting a white dwarf that’s destroyed its inner planets, which are now raining down on it. Credit: Jon Lomberg / Gemini Observatory
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Tag: white dwarfs