An international team of astrophysicists has discovered eight rare hot white dwarfs at once — the most
Scientists have used observations withSouth African Large Telescope (SALT). It is the largest single optical telescope in the southern hemisphere. Astrophysicists have studied helium-rich subdwarfs and discovered unusual hot stars.
All new stars are in the final stagetheir life cycle and approaching the end of evolution. The size of white dwarfs is comparable to our planet, while their mass is close to the mass of the Sun. Due to their ultra-high density and enormous surface temperature, they are more than 100 times brighter than our star, despite their relatively small size.
Sky survey in the center of which is one of the found white dwarfs J203959.5-034117. Image: Tom Watts (AOP), STScINASA, The Dark Energy Survey
One of the new stars is the center of the planetarya nebula that is one light year in diameter. The other two are pulsating or "variable" stars. And the surface temperature of the hottest of them reaches 180,000 ° C. The variety of forms in which these bright stars were discovered opens up new possibilities for studying the evolution of stars, the authors of the study note.
Stars with an effective temperature of 100,000degrees Celsius and above are incredibly rare. It was a real surprise to find so many of these stars in our survey. These discoveries will help improve our understanding of the later stages of stellar evolution.
Simon Jeffrey, astronomer at the Arman Observatory, head of research
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On the cover: an artistic illustration of a white dwarf system with a flying comet. Image: NASA, ESA, and Z. Levy (STScI)