Astronomers saw for the first time that the white dwarf sharply dimmed

For the first time, astronomers have seen a white dwarf suddenly become bright and then dim.The phenomenon was recorded

The star was part of the TW Pictoris binary system: it is located at a distance of 1.4 thousand kilometers.light years of the Earth.

White dwarfs are old stars exhaustedthermonuclear fuel, but their mass is not enough to turn into a neutron star. The star system observed by the authors of the new work included a white dwarf and an ordinary star. Both objects suddenly disappeared in less than 30 minutes.

A white dwarf absorbs matter that falls onto it as a result of accretion, that is, pulling fromAt the same time, a large disc is formed, providing a constant flow of material.This means that the luminosity of the white dwarf should not change significantly over short periods of time.

The authors suggested that the discovered phenomenon could be related to a slowdown in the flow of matter.This is due to changes in the magnetic field of the star.pulsars, whose brightness can change every second. 

Researchers are going to study this process in detail and understand what it affects. 

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