"Revealing the Eternal Youth of White Dwarf Stars"

Some white dwarfs may take longer to cool off than previously expected, indicating a way of generating energy after their "deaths" and defying the classical picture of them being inert dead stars. Researchers have discovered a population of white dwarfs that seem to have stopped cooling for billions of years and propose a mechanism involving the creation of solid crystals that float upon denser liquid, releasing gravitational energy and halting the cooling process. This discovery may redefine the way astronomers date stars and complicate age-dating and the use of white dwarfs to reconstruct the formation of our galaxy.