White Dwarf

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Heavy metal planet found around dead star

Unique binaryMAIN

Unique ‘cannibalising’ binary system discovered

An artist’s impression of a comet-like object falling towards a white dwarf Credit: NASA, ESA, and Z. Levy (STScI)

Halley-like comet destroyed by white dwarf

This artist’s impression shows the strange object AR Scorpii. In this unique double star a rapidly spinning white dwarf star (right) powers electrons up to almost the speed of light. These high energy particles release blasts of radiation that lash the companion red dwarf star (left) and cause the entire system to pulse dramatically every 1.97 minutes with radiation ranging from the ultraviolet to radio.

White dwarf blasts companion with radiation

An artist's impression of the debris disc around the white dwarf SDSS J1228+1040 (left) at the same scale as Saturn and its rings (right). While the white dwarf in SDSS J1228+1040 has about seven times smaller diameter than Saturn, it has a mass 2500 times greater.

White dwarf’s glowing disc observed

White dwarf cannibalising planet MAIN

White dwarf observed ‘cannibalising’ rocky object