Science, Space and Technology News 2024
Researchers have discovered why some white dwarf stars stop cooling, challenging previous understandings and affecting how astronomers determine the age of stars. This finding, stemming from the behavior of solid crystals within the stars, prompts a reevaluation of stellar age assessment and galaxy formation theories. Credit: SciTechDaily.com
Open any astronomy textbook to the section on white dwarf stars and you’ll likely learn that they are “dead stars” that continuously cool down over time. The cooling occurs because the white dwarfs have depleted their nuclear heat source. In the classic picture, this causes the denseby Sihao Cheng, Martin A. and Helen Chooljian Member in the Institute’s School of Natural Sciences, contradicted this standard picture. It showed that some white dwarfs in fact remain hot for many billions of years .
This understanding was developed through a collaboration between Cheng, Antoine Bédard of the University of Warwick, and Simon Blouin of the University of Victoria.They propose that in some white dwarfs, the dense plasma in the interior does not simply freeze from the inside out. Instead, the solid crystals that are formed upon freezing are less dense than the liquid, and therefore begin to float towards the surface. As the crystals float upwards, they displace the heavier liquid downward.
Why this happens in some white dwarfs and not others is uncertain, but the authors think it is likely due to the composition of the star.
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