New Type of Pulsating Star

Written by Nathaniel Whitehead

Astronomers Michael Montgomery, Kurtis Williams and graduate student Steven Degennaro using the 2.1 meter Otto Struve telescope at the McDonald Observatory have confirmed the existence of a “pulsating carbon white dwarf”..... White dwarfs are stellar remnants of stars not massive enough to end their lives in a supernova and is the most common fate for stars in the universe. Called SDSS J142625.71+575218.3 the white dwarf is located about 800 light years away in the constellation Ursa Major. It is about as massive as our own sun but with a diameter that is less than that of Earth’s and is not nearly as bright as the Sun. The discovery of such an object will contribute to our understanding of asteroseismology which is the study of the interior processes of stars and will help in our understanding of stellar evolution. This particular white dwarf is a “hot carbon white dwarf” called so because of its outer envelope of carbon and is believed to pulsate because of changes in this outer carbon envelope as it cools down from the processes that formed it. To find out more about this and other discoveries from the McDonald Observatory visit the following link; http://mcdonaldobservatory.org/news/releases/2008/0501.html