Science
11bn-year-old diamond the size of Earth is coldest white dwarf ever discovered
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University of North Carolina|PSR J2222-0137|Professor David Kaplan|Diamond White Dwarf|Coldest White Dwarf
In
the case of this recently discovered white dwarf, astronomers believe
that it has cooled and crystallized all the way to diamond, estimating
that the once-fiery star is 11 billion years old.
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LONDON:
Astronomers have identified what might be one of the strangest stars in
our galaxy: an incredibly cold, ancient and faint white dwarf that has
crystallized into a diamond the size of Earth.
"It's a really remarkable object," said Professor David Kaplan of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee in a press release. "These things should be out there, but because they are so dim they are very hard to find."
White dwarfs are stars at the end of their life span when the fusion reaction that has pumped out heat and energy during has all but stopped, leaving the remaining carbon and oxygen to compact into an incredibly dense and cold state.
In the case of this recently discovered white dwarf, astronomers believe that it has cooled and crystallized all the way to diamond, estimating that the once-fiery star is 11 billion years old — making it the same age as the Milky Way.
Stars like this aren't rare (around 97 per cent of stars are thought to turn into white dwarfs and we've even discovered planets made of diamond) but they are incredibly difficult to find — simply because their light is too faint to make its way through the cosmos to telescopes on Earth.
Thankfully, this particular white dwarf had a partner that gave away its presence to astronomers on Earth: a companion pulsar star dubbed PSR J2222-0137.
Pulsars are superdense neutron stars that spin incredibly quickly, shooting beams of radio waves into the cosmos like supercharged lighthouses. However, with PSR J2222-0137 astronomers noticed that the radio beams were regularly obstructed by an unknown object.
The team from the National Radio Astronomy Observatory in the US suspected it was a white dwarf, but were still unable to see the object after further observation. Their explanation? That this is one of the coldest white dwarf ever discovered.
"Our final image should show us a companion 100 times fainter than any other white dwarf orbiting a neutron star and about 10 times fainter than any known white dwarf, but we don't see a thing," said University of North Carolina graduate student Bart Dunlap. "If there's a white dwarf there, and there almost certainly is, it must be extremely cold."
However, this is cold in an astronomical sense and despite being 5,000 times cooler than the center of the Sun, the diamond white dwarf is still thought to be 2,700 degrees celsius (or 4,892 degrees Fahrenheit).
"It's a really remarkable object," said Professor David Kaplan of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee in a press release. "These things should be out there, but because they are so dim they are very hard to find."
White dwarfs are stars at the end of their life span when the fusion reaction that has pumped out heat and energy during has all but stopped, leaving the remaining carbon and oxygen to compact into an incredibly dense and cold state.
In the case of this recently discovered white dwarf, astronomers believe that it has cooled and crystallized all the way to diamond, estimating that the once-fiery star is 11 billion years old — making it the same age as the Milky Way.
Stars like this aren't rare (around 97 per cent of stars are thought to turn into white dwarfs and we've even discovered planets made of diamond) but they are incredibly difficult to find — simply because their light is too faint to make its way through the cosmos to telescopes on Earth.
Thankfully, this particular white dwarf had a partner that gave away its presence to astronomers on Earth: a companion pulsar star dubbed PSR J2222-0137.
Pulsars are superdense neutron stars that spin incredibly quickly, shooting beams of radio waves into the cosmos like supercharged lighthouses. However, with PSR J2222-0137 astronomers noticed that the radio beams were regularly obstructed by an unknown object.
The team from the National Radio Astronomy Observatory in the US suspected it was a white dwarf, but were still unable to see the object after further observation. Their explanation? That this is one of the coldest white dwarf ever discovered.
"Our final image should show us a companion 100 times fainter than any other white dwarf orbiting a neutron star and about 10 times fainter than any known white dwarf, but we don't see a thing," said University of North Carolina graduate student Bart Dunlap. "If there's a white dwarf there, and there almost certainly is, it must be extremely cold."
However, this is cold in an astronomical sense and despite being 5,000 times cooler than the center of the Sun, the diamond white dwarf is still thought to be 2,700 degrees celsius (or 4,892 degrees Fahrenheit).
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really great science news..when we think keeping ourselves in the mind,
we find ourselves so big and great...........when we think of universe
with so many milky ways and so many stars in a single milky way with
planets surrounding those milky ways, we find ourselves so tiny and
powerless...
Don't
go through this. Think of others, may lead to talk only. Why don't you
find the real saphire mines in kashmir? Kashmir saphire are world fame
from old time. Work is worship. Hard work and ironical mind of thinking
may birth people like prime of everybody.
Can any one find MH370 like this, Which can really serve the whole purpose of this science and technology to this humanity?
First,
they found water body in mantle and everybody was like 'can we get this
water'.. then they reported the hydrocarbons from saturn and everybody
was thinking if we can get them to earth with a pipeline.. and now they
have found the diamond and all women would be thinking if it could be
broken to smaller pieces and brought back to earth!!
planning
to visit?or planning to get vaporized. 2700 degree Celsius.we humans
are nothing but vulnerable in comparison to these.just wonder nothing
else.
very important discovery
a
thousand years from now, there will still be a mother earth, future
iterations of us will be either staying on earth and maybe scratching
something, and then there will be those who are tralleving to new
places, new destinations. energy and space are limited, soon humanity
will also need to settle somewhere else, a 100 thousand years is but
just a speck of time for our universe. questions is where will we
indians be, here on earth scratchin our heads, or up there.
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Want a time machine? First, catch your wormhole. Image: Martin Ringbauer