All articles tagged with #white dwarf stars
New research suggests that planets orbiting white dwarf stars may be more habitable than previously thought due to the effects of Einstein's general relativity, which stabilizes their orbits and prevents excessive tidal heating that would otherwise render them uninhabitable.
Astrophysicists have discovered a new phenomenon challenging the traditional understanding of white dwarf stars, which were thought to cool down continuously over time. Some white dwarfs have been found to stop cooling for over eight billion years, and new research has unveiled the mechanism behind this unexpected observation. It appears that in some white dwarfs, the solid crystals formed upon freezing are less dense than the liquid, causing them to float upward and release gravitational energy, interrupting the cooling process. This discovery not only requires revisions to astronomy textbooks but also calls for a reevaluation of the process used to determine the age of stellar populations, as some white dwarfs may be billions of years older than previously thought.
Using the James Webb Space Telescope, astronomers have potentially discovered two gas giant exoplanets orbiting white dwarf stars, offering insight into the possible fate of planets in our Solar System. If confirmed, these would be the first directly-imaged planets similar in age and separation to those in our own Solar System, demonstrating that widely separated giant planets like Jupiter can survive stellar evolution. The discovery raises questions about the fate of planetary systems when their stars reach the end of their lives, and further observations are recommended to confirm and study these fascinating findings.