Astronomers find dead star orbiting a Sun-like star
Australian telescope discovered a white dwarf pulsar orbiting a Sun-like star, the first pairing of its kind.
Scientists using the Murchison Widefield Array radio telescope in Western Australia spotted radio pulses arriving every 7.9 minutes from a previously unknown system. The source was identified as a white dwarf, the dense remnant of a dead star, orbiting a star almost identical to our Sun.
A white dwarf pulsar paired with a Sun-like star has never been found before. The discovery helps explain a new class of cosmic objects called long-period radio transients.
These emit bright bursts of radio waves at irregular intervals. Some white dwarf binaries are thought to evolve into Type Ia supernovae, explosions astronomers use to measure how the universe expands.
- Every 7.9 minutes
- Pulse interval
- 32 hours
- Orbital period
Why it mattersThe discovery reveals hidden stellar systems that could teach us how stars like our own Sun end their lives and explode.
AustraliaAustralian-led research using a Western Australian telescope. Published in Nature Astronomy and advance understanding of stellar evolution.
