Latest news with #whiteDwarf
Forbes
5 days ago
- Science
- Forbes
A ‘New Star' Suddenly Got 3 Million Times Brighter — How To See It
A new star has appeared in the night sky and is rapidly brightening, according to amateur astronomers. Called V462 Lupi, it's currently 3.3 million times brighter than usual and visible to the naked eye, though only from more southerly regions of North America. The Lupus constellation, home to V462 Lupi, a nova that is rapidly brightening. getty The star has increased in brightness by almost 16 times in the 20 days since it was discovered. When it was first seen, V462 Lupi was +8.7 magnitude — too dim to be seen with the naked eye — but has since rapidly brightened to +5.7 magnitude, which is on the cusp of naked eye visibility. It's usually a +22.3 magnitude star, 3.3 million times dimmer than it's right now. Since this is its first recorded eruption, it's unknown how long V462 Lupi will be visible to the naked eye. It could take just a few days to return to its regular dim levels, or it could take months. V462 Lupi is in the constellation Lupus, the wolf, which is between the constellations Scorpius and Centaurus, but it's not known how far away it is from the solar system. The star is known as a nova, a Latin term meaning 'new star.' It's thought to be a classical nova, an outburst in a binary system where a white dwarf (the dense leftover core of a dying sun-like star) and an expanding red giant star orbit each other. According to NASA, the white dwarf's gravity pulls hot hydrogen from its companion, which builds up and triggers a thermonuclear blast. Unlike supernovas, which obliterate stars, novas are recurring events that only affect the outer layer of a white dwarf. These outbursts can make the system millions of times brighter. How To See V462 Lupi According to Sky and Telescope (which has a useful selection of sky charts), those observing from a latitude around 40 degrees north (California, Nevada, Utah, Colorado, Nebraska, Kansas, Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, West Virginia, Pennsylvania and New Jersey) will find V462 Lupi around 10 degrees above the southern horizon at around 10:30 p.m. local time. From the Florida Keys, at around 25 degrees north, V462 Lupi will be 25 degrees above the southern horizon. The higher it is in the sky, the easier it will be to see, though binoculars will make it easier. A finder chart for telescope users is available on the website of the American Association of Variable Star Observers. It's near the bright stars Delta and Beta Lupi. V462 Lupi has appeared as astronomers await the explosion of a recurrent nova — a "repeating new star" that explodes every 80 years. Called T Coronae Borealis (also known as T CrB and the "Blaze Star"), it's classified as a 'cataclysmic variable star' and was observed to brighten to naked-eye visibility in both 1866 and then 80 years later in 1946. A 10-year drop in T CrB's light was reported in a paper in 2023 — thought to be a precursor to a rapid brightening — but it's yet to do so despite predictions it would go nova in March. T CrB is approximately 3,000 light-years away from the solar system — significantly farther than most stars visible in the night sky — which means it exploded 3,000 years ago. Further reading Forbes A Star May Explode Next Week In Once-In-80-Years Event — What To Know By Jamie Carter Forbes NASA Urges Public To Look At Night Sky Now For 'Nova' Location By Jamie Carter Forbes NASA Spacecraft 'Touches Sun' For Final Time In Defining Moment For Humankind By Jamie Carter Forbes Get Ready For The Shortest Day Since Records Began As Earth Spins Faster By Jamie Carter
Yahoo
08-06-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
The Webb telescope found something exceedingly rare around a dying star
The Ring Nebula is a well-known space icon shaped like a doughnut about 2,500 light-years away in the constellation Lyra. But astronomers think it's been holding a secret that only the penetrating gaze of the James Webb Space Telescope, a joint project of NASA and the European and Canadian space agencies, could reveal. Using Webb's infrared-sensing MIRI instrument, scientists got a clear sightline to the small but scorching star at its center. The shriveled core — a white dwarf — is all that remains of the star on its deathbed, having molted its outermost layers. When researchers zoomed in, they got a surprise. Surrounding the withering star was a disk of dust, much like the kind found around new stars that are in their prime planet-birthing years. It was kind of like seeing a pregnant octogenarian in a nursing home. This is just the second time scientists have observed such a disk around a star at the end of its life. And though they can't actually see baby planets in their nebula images, they are now wondering if these space environments could trigger a second generation of planets, long after the original brood of worlds formed around the star. The discovery, published in The Astrophysical Journal, is "raising questions about their nature, formation, longevity, and potentially a second phase of planet formation," the authors wrote. SEE ALSO: Spectacular Webb telescope image shows a stellar death like never before The James Webb Space Telescope provides a clear view of the central white dwarf creating the Ring Nebula in the left image. Credit: NASA / ESA / CSA / Raghvendra Sahai et al. Unlike giant stars that explode into a supernova and collapse into a black hole when their time is up, a medium star gradually runs out of nuclear fuel and suffers a more prolonged death. These stars, like our midsize sun in perhaps 5 billion years, decline into so-called planetary nebulas, a confusing misnomer for the phenomenon because they have more to do with aging stars than planets. Scientists have discovered a few thousand planetary nebulas in the Milky Way. Those include the Ring Nebula, aka NGC 6720 and Messier 57. With Webb, the researchers could see a compact dust cloud around the central white dwarf creating it. "These are first seen as the gas-and-dust-rich planet-forming disks in young stellar objects, and are an integral part of the star formation process itself," the authors wrote. "Remarkably, dusty disks or disk-like structures manifest themselves again as these stars reach the ends of their lives." Such a rare sighting is believed to have happened once before, when astronomers got a look at the Southern Ring Nebula with Webb, at wavelengths far beyond what people can see with their eyes. In the first images, astronomers were amazed to spot the true source of the nebula, said Karl Gordon, an astronomer at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore. "We knew this was a binary star (beforehand), but we effectively didn't really see much of the actual star that produced the nebula," he said during a 2022 news conference. "But now in MIRI, this star glows red because it has dust around it." The James Webb Space Telescope spots a dusty disk around the central white dwarf powering the Ring Nebula. Credit: NASA GSFC / CIL / Adriana Manrique Gutierrez illustration The dust cloud around the Ring Nebula is composed of tiny grains of amorphous silicate, a glass-like substance, according to the new paper. These particles are miniscule, perhaps less than one-thousandth the thickness of a human hair. The cloud itself stretches thousands of times wider than the distance between the Earth and the sun. The researchers noticed something else intriguing at the center of the nebula. The white dwarf's brightness keeps changing. That might be a clue that another star is lurking in the shadows nearby, perhaps a small-but-feisty red dwarf star. While scientists haven't directly spotted the buddy yet, they can infer it's there from patterns in the nebula. The study could help confirm earlier findings that suggested the star had two companions — one far in the outskirts of the system and another nearby. A close star could explain the strange arcs and rings seen around the nebula.
Malay Mail
15-05-2025
- Science
- Malay Mail
Universe dying faster than thought, says new research
THE HAGUE, May 15 — The universe is poised to die much faster than previously thought, according to new research by Dutch scientists. But there's no great need to panic. We still have 10 to the power of 78 years before it happens — that's a one with 78 zeroes. However, that is a major revision from the previous estimate of 10 to the power of 1,100 years, notes the research paper from Radboud University, published in the Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics. 'The final end of the universe is coming much sooner than expected but fortunately it still takes a very long time,' said lead author Heino Falcke. A trio of scientists at Radboud set out to calculate when the most 'durable' celestial bodies — white dwarf stars — would eventually die out. They based their calculations on Hawking radiation, named after celebrated British physicist Stephen Hawking. Hawking postulated in the mid-1970s that black holes leak radiation, slowly dissolving like aspirin in a glass of water — giving them a finite lifetime. The Radboud scientists extended this to other objects in the universe, calculating that the 'evaporation time' depends on density. This enabled them to calculate the theoretical dissolution of the longest-lasting body, the white dwarf. 'By asking these kinds of questions and looking at extreme cases, we want to better understand the theory, and perhaps one day, we can unravel the mystery of Hawking radiation,' said co-author Walter van Suijlekom. Humankind needn't worry too much about the end of the universe. Unless we escape planet Earth, we'll be long gone. Scientists think that our Sun will be too hot for life in about a billion years, boiling our oceans. In about eight billion years, our star will eventually expand towards the Earth, finally gobbling up our by-then barren and lifeless planet and condemning it to a fiery death. — AFP
Al Arabiya
13-05-2025
- Science
- Al Arabiya
Universe dying much faster than thought, says new research
The universe is poised to die much faster than previously thought, according to new research by Dutch scientists. But there's no great need to panic. We still have 10 to the power of 78 years before it happens -- that's a one with 78 zeroes. However, that is a major revision from the previous estimate of 10 to the power of 1,100 years, notes the research paper from Radboud University, published in the Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics. 'The final end of the universe is coming much sooner than expected but fortunately it still takes a very long time,' said lead author Heino Falcke. A trio of scientists at Radboud set out to calculate when the most 'durable' celestial bodies -- white dwarf stars -- would eventually die out. They based their calculations on Hawking radiation, named after celebrated British physicist Stephen Hawking. Hawking postulated in the mid-1970s that black holes leak radiation, slowly dissolving like aspirin in a glass of water -- giving them a finite lifetime. The Radboud scientists extended this to other objects in the universe, calculating that the 'evaporation time' depends on density. This enabled them to calculate the theoretical dissolution of the longest-lasting body, the white dwarf. 'By asking these kinds of questions and looking at extreme cases, we want to better understand the theory, and perhaps one day, we can unravel the mystery of Hawking radiation,' said co-author Walter van Suijlekom. Humankind needn't worry too much about the end of the universe. Unless we escape planet Earth, we'll be long gone. Scientists think that our Sun will be too hot for life in about a billion years, boiling our oceans. In about eight billion years, our star will eventually expand towards the Earth, finally gobbling up our by-then barren and lifeless planet and condemning it to a fiery death.
Yahoo
13-05-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Universe dying quicker than thought, says new research
The universe is poised to die much faster than previously thought, according to new research by Dutch scientists. But there's no great need to panic. We still have 10 to the power of 78 years before it happens -- that's a one with 78 zeroes. However, that is a major revision from the previous estimate of 10 to the power of 1,100 years, notes the research paper from Radboud University, published in the Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics. "The final end of the universe is coming much sooner than expected but fortunately it still takes a very long time," said lead author Heino Falcke. A trio of scientists at Radboud set out to calculate when the most "durable" celestial bodies -- white dwarf stars -- would eventually die out. They based their calculations on Hawking radiation, named after celebrated British physicist Stephen Hawking. Hawking postulated in the mid-1970s that black holes leak radiation, slowly dissolving like aspirin in a glass of water -- giving them a finite lifetime. The Radboud scientists extended this to other objects in the universe, calculating that the "evaporation time" depends on density. This enabled them to calculate the theoretical dissolution of the longest-lasting body, the white dwarf. "By asking these kinds of questions and looking at extreme cases, we want to better understand the theory, and perhaps one day, we can unravel the mystery of Hawking radiation," said co-author Walter van Suijlekom. Humankind needn't worry too much about the end of the universe. Unless we escape planet Earth, we'll be long gone. Scientists think that our Sun will be too hot for life in about a billion years, boiling our oceans. In about eight billion years, our star will eventually expand towards the Earth, finally gobbling up our by-then barren and lifeless planet and condemning it to a fiery death. ric/gil
