Posted on 04/07/2011 7:51:52 PM PDT by SunkenCiv
White dwarfs are dead stars that pack a Sun's-worth of matter into an Earth-sized ball. Astronomers have just discovered an amazing pair of white dwarfs whirling around each other once every 39 minutes. This is the shortest-period pair of white dwarfs now known. Moreover, in a few million years they will collide and merge to create a single star...
The newly identified binary star (designated SDSS J010657.39 -- 100003.3) is located about 7,800 light-years away in the constellation Cetus. It consists of two white dwarfs, a visible star and an unseen companion whose presence is betrayed by the visible star's motion around it. The visible white dwarf weighs about 17 percent as much as the Sun, while the second white dwarf weighs 43 per cent as much. Astronomers believe that both are made of helium.
The two white dwarfs orbit each other at a distance of 140,000 miles -- less than the distance from the Earth to the Moon. They whirl around at speeds of 270 miles per second (1 million miles per hour), completing one orbit in only 39 minutes.
The fate of these stars is already sealed. Because they wheel around so close to each other, the white dwarfs stir the space-time continuum, creating expanding ripples known as gravitational waves. Those waves carry away orbital energy, causing the stars to spiral closer and closer together. In about 37 million years, they will collide and merge.
(Excerpt) Read more at physorg.com ...
CfA astronomers have found a pair of white dwarf stars orbiting each other once every 39 minutes. In a few million years, they will merge and reignite as a helium-burning star. In this artist's conception, the reborn star is shown with a hypothetical world. Credit: David A. Aguilar (CfA)
 |
||
| · join · view topics · view or post blog · bookmark · post new topic · subscribe · | ||
| Google news searches: exoplanet · exosolar · extrasolar · | ||
 |
||
| · join · view topics · view or post blog · bookmark · post new topic · subscribe · | ||
“In about 37 million years, they will collide and merge.”
Oh, I can’t wait to see it !!
Fascinating stuff. And when the newly created star has moved down the chain from helium fusion to finally trying and failing to fuse iron, it’ll presumably end up as a white dwarf again. Amazing the amount we’ve already learned about the universe and the time-scales in which stars operate from our little mayfly lives.
Send me a postcard general delivery. I’ll be on the other side of the Universe. =)
Nevermind...I thought this thread would be about Brangelina...
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
