New research using data from the Zwicky Transient Facility (ZTF) reveals a vast diversity in the way white dwarf stars explode, capturing nearly 4,000 events scattered across the universe. These explosions, triggered by events like star collisions and 'cannibalism,' may help scientists understand dark energy and its role in the universe's expansion.
Learn about the explosions that often occur at the end of a white dwarf star's life, allowing scientists to study the acceleration of the universe.
The explosions were detailed in a dataset and a collection of 21 associated studies published in a special issue of. The large sample size was obtained by Zwicky Transient Facility , a Caltech-led astronomical sky survey at the Palomar Observatory in San Diego County. However, a white dwarf’s story changes when it is part of a binary star system. In this arrangement, a white dwarf star usually pulls mass from a nearby companion star. When a white dwarf exceeds a threshold called the Chandrasekhar limit — about 1.4 times the mass of the Sun — it becomes primed to explode., has historically been used by astrophysicists to measure distances in the universe, leading them to postulate that the universe is constantly accelerating.
ZTF’s observations showed a range of different explosion events, including collisions of two stars and even instances of “cannibalism,” in which a white dwarf star consumes its companions in binary systems.
DARK ENERGY WHITE DWARF STARS SUPERNOVA COSMOLOGY ASTROPHYSICS
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