Robert Lea is a science journalist in the U.K. who specializes in science, space, physics, astronomy, astrophysics, cosmology, quantum mechanics and technology. Rob's articles have been published in Physics World, New Scientist, Astronomy Magazine, All About Space and ZME Science.
White dwarfs are the stars that will be left behind when stars like the sun"die," smoldering away in space as cooling stellar embers.
The fountain of stellar youthWhite dwarfs are born when stars that possess around the same mass as the sun exhaust the fuel supply necessary for nuclear fusion at their cores. This supply is made up of the universe's lightest element: Hydrogen. The end of fusion, aka the conversion of hydrogen to helium, in the stellar core also cuts off the energy that has pushed outwards and protected the star from collapsing under its own gravity for often billions of years.
For the sun, this transformation will begin in around 5 billion years; the red giant phase of our star will see it swell out to the radius of Mars. During this time, the sun will end up swallowing the inner planets, including Earth. 97% of the stars in the Milky Way will undergo the same basic process to become white dwarfs.
Bédard and colleagues think that, for some white dwarfs, the dense plasma within doesn't freeze from inside to outside. They have discovered a celestial fountain of youth, so to speak, which lurks beneath some of these stars' shells. "This explanation matches all the observational properties of the unusual white dwarf population," Bédard said in a statement."This is the first time this transport mechanism has been observed in any type of star, which is exciting: it’s not every day we uncover a whole new astrophysical phenomenon!"
Currently, when scientists look at white dwarfs, they assume the cooler one is, the more ancient it is. The cooling delay experienced by these peculiar white dwarfs, however, could mean they have temperatures that make them appear much younger than they actually are.—'This is a journey, not a destination': Stunning map of the Milky Way's center exposes new mysteries about our galaxy
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