A Contracting White Dwarf?
A peculiar X-ray binary may contain the first known white dwarf which is still in the process of contracting.
40 Eridani B: a Challenging Star
40 Eridani B was the first white dwarf to be discovered, but details of its structure and composition remained a mystery, until today’s paper.
New twinkles in the sky
Pulsations are the way for astronomers to probe the interior of stars. Today’s paper announces the discovery of a new class of pulsator stars. What makes them different? And what exciting new things can we learn from that?
Image credits: Paweł Pietrukowicz
How well do we measure the radii of white dwarfs?
The accuracy of our estimates of the radii of white dwarf stars has important implications to cosmology. We currently rely on a theoretical mass-radius relationship for that. Are we doing a good job?
Image credits: RJHall/Wikimedia Commons.
Wonderful Miras in the Heart of the Galaxy
The discovery of carbon-rich Mira variables in the Galactic centre could imply the existence of a number of young stars among the otherwise old Galactic bulge population.
The stellar evolution conspiracy, part II
Stellar evolution remains one of the most complicated and yet fundamental subjects in astrophysics. In today’s paper, we take a look at the role of atomic diffusion in the evolution of Sun-like stars, and how they affect estimates of stellar ages and chemical tagging.