KentuckyFC writes "It doesn't happen very often but astronomers have discovered a new class of pulsating white dwarf. The work began last year when the Sloan Digital Sky Survey found a few exotic white dwarf stars with carbon atmospheres. A mathematical model of these stars showed that in some circumstances the dwarfs could pulsate as the carbon was cycled through the atmosphere by convection. Now a few days observation of one of these stars has shown that it does actually pulsate as predicted (abstract on the physics arxiv)." Link to Original Source
This discussion was created for logged-in users only, but now has been archived.
No new comments can be posted.
Astronomers discover new class of pulsating star 0 Comments More Login /
Get More Comments