Astronomers have created a map of the movement of dead stars in the Milky Way

White dwarfs were once ordinary stars similar to the Sun. Then they ceased to exist

having exhausted all its fuel.These interstellar remnants have historically been difficult to study. However, a recent study from Lund University in Sweden reveals new information about the motion patterns of these mysterious stars.

Thanks to observations from the space telescopeGaia, for the first time we were able to reveal the three-dimensional distribution of velocities for the largest catalog of white dwarfs to date. This gives us a detailed picture of their velocity structure in unprecedented detail,” explains Daniel Mikkola, PhD student in astronomy at Lund University, co-author of the study.

Using the Gaia telescope, scientists discovered twoparallel sequences of white dwarfs by observing their temperature and brightness. Studying them individually, astronomers noticed that they moved differently. The reason is that they have different mass and lifetime. 

As the authors of the new work note, the resultsuseful for developing new simulations and models to continue mapping the history and development of the Milky Way. The researchers hope that with increased knowledge of white dwarfs, they will be able to answer questions related to the birth of our galaxy.

White dwarfs are made up of an electron-nuclearplasma and glow due to their thermal energy, gradually cooling down over billions of years. The closest known white dwarf is Sirius B, 8.6 light-years from Earth.

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