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Astronomers Discover New Class of Pulsating Star

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on from the shiny-new-toys dept.

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."

35 comments

  1. What is love? by BadAnalogyGuy · · Score: 5, Funny

    Baby don't hurt me.
    Don't hurt me.
    No more.

    Wait, that's Chris Kattan, a different kind of white dwarf star.

    1. Re:What is love? by Dr.+Cody · · Score: 5, Funny

      The inevitable and predictable jokes people make when the word "dwarf" comes up in some neutral context are sophomoric and insensitive.

      We shouldn't belittle people for how they were born.

    2. Re:What is love? by BadAnalogyGuy · · Score: 3, Funny

      Hey. Don't get short with me.

    3. Re:What is love? by sentientbeing · · Score: 0, Offtopic

      These arent dwarfs. They just look small because theyre very very very far away.

      --

      ------
      beware he who would deny you access to information, for in his mind he dreams himself your master
    4. Re:What is love? by Dachannien · · Score: 0, Offtopic

      Wait, that's Chris Kattan, a different kind of white dwarf star. I think the word "pulsating" applies here as well.
    5. Re:What is love? by thatskinnyguy · · Score: 1

      Wait, that's Chris Kattan, a different kind of white little person star.

      There. Made it more PC.

      --
      The game.
    6. Re:What is love? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Hey! Leave that dancing old bald guy with the bow tie, who advertises Six Flags, alone!

  2. Getting the public interested by ZorbaTHut · · Score: 1

    Now all we need is a vibrating star and we're in business.

    --
    Breaking Into the Industry - A development log about starting a game studio.
  3. Pulsating White Dwarf... by thousandinone · · Score: 5, Funny

    Thats what THE LADIES call me!

    1. Re:Pulsating White Dwarf... by _PimpDaddy7_ · · Score: 1

      Pfff.

      My user id says it all, mate...

    2. Re:Pulsating White Dwarf... by 32771 · · Score: 1

      > Carbon dwarfs should be great throbbing balls of fire. Yep, pulsating stars.

      Wow! You read the article?

      --
      Je me souviens.
  4. Not again! by StreetStealth · · Score: 4, Funny

    I quit WoW to get away from pulsating white dwarfs!

    --
    Your mind is clear / The things that you fear / Will fade with how much you / Believe what you hear
    1. Re:Not again! by jd · · Score: 1

      You understand the reason they're pulsating? After dropping Thrud the Barbarian, there has been no stabilizing influence.

      --
      It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
  5. oh wow! by vajaradakini · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I wonder how this sort of star came about? I haven't read through the entire article (well, the one that's actually going in the scientific journal not the condensed version that's linked), but it seems really interesting.

    Of course I also didn't know that white dwarfs pulsated at all, I generally thought of them as these little lumps of carbon that just cooled down. Does anyone know if the pulsations are due to the star cooling and contracting as it does so (I know this is a likely cause for neutron stars' "starquakes" so it could be an analogous process but on a smaller scale) or if it's something else?

    --
    what's that now?
  6. "A fly in the ointment" by The+Fun+Guy · · Score: 4, Insightful
    From TFA:

    Congratualtions to them but there is a potential fly in the ointment: what looks like a pulsating dwarf could actually be a binary system of two white dwarfs. Dufour is unfazed. He points out that the characteristics of the system are unique so either way, they've found a new class of something or other.
    Since binary stars are a common phenomenon and what they are proposing is completely new, isn't it more likely that the less bizarre explanation is probably the right one?
    --
    The man who does not read good books has no advantage over the man who cannot read them. - Mark Twain
    1. Re:"A fly in the ointment" by vajaradakini · · Score: 1

      Either way, it's a white dwarf with carbon in the atmosphere, which hasn't really been observed either, as the article mentions. It's pretty amazing and exciting, at least for this astronomer.

      --
      what's that now?
    2. Re:"A fly in the ointment" by Changa_MC · · Score: 4, Interesting
      We've never seen a pulsating carbon convection star, but we've also never actually seen a binary white dwarf that looks like this. Both are highly complicated systems and neither is inherently more complex than the other.

      And the first gets +1 cool, where the second gets a -1 redundant. That's at least as important as any other rating system right now.

      --
      Changa hates change.
    3. Re:"A fly in the ointment" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      [I]sn't it more likely that the less bizarre explanation is probably the right one? Perhaps that's possible, but it's not a given when you consider: 1) a thesis 35 years ago predicted this phenomenon, 2) models match the observations, and 3) they discovered nine of them.
    4. Re:"A fly in the ointment" by cletus7654321 · · Score: 1

      Since binary stars are a common phenomenon... Maybe I misheard, but aren't they more common than single star systems such as ours?
    5. Re:"A fly in the ointment" by trolltalk.com · · Score: 0, Redundant

      they discovered nine of them.

      ... and the first seven dwarfs are named Doc, Grumpy, Happy, Sneezy, Bashful, Sleepy, and Dopey.

      we're saving the smurf names for the blue dwarfs.

      --
      Kevin Smith on Prince
    6. Re:"A fly in the ointment" by TapeCutter · · Score: 1

      "They've found a new class of something or other."

      Should have been the headline.

      --
      And did you exchange a walk on part in the war for a lead role in a cage? - Pink Floyd.
    7. Re:"A fly in the ointment" by toddestan · · Score: 2, Funny

      There's a saying, that 3 out of every 2 stars are in a binary star system.

  7. White dwarf pulsating power must be by Zabu · · Score: 4, Funny

    measured in GimliHertz?

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    It's all good.
    1. Re:White dwarf pulsating power must be by Miltazar · · Score: 1

      Wait, we're still using THAT old system of measurement? What about BruenerHertz? They're much better.

      --
      "Hold! What you are doing to us is wrong! Why do you do this thing?"
  8. personal ad by arbitraryaardvark · · Score: 4, Funny

    Once upon a time, back at Alma Mater U, the campus newspaper ran an ad
    "Red giant seeks white dwarf for binary relationship." and gave astronomy professor Harry Shipman's phone number.
    Ever since then, ID has been required when placing personal ads.

  9. Oblig. grammar correction by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Now a few days observation... Now a few days' observation...
  10. Exotic white dwarf stars by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    They watch Little People Big World on TLC?

  11. pulsating white dwarf by harris+s+newman · · Score: 1

    I once dated a pulsating white dwarf, boy was she hot!

  12. Ho hum, hooray! by ThePromenader · · Score: 1

    Once we get to a certain level of molecular (atomical) understanding, I think we are able to recreate any 'model' of physical circumstances. Yet it must be done to be proven...

    --

    No, no sig. Really.

    ThePromenader
  13. Re:oh wow! Maybe it arose out of a steady by davidsyes · · Score: 1

    bang?

    If there is a "white dwarf", is there a opposite, "black giant"? If these two commingled, would there be an undulating, cosmic orgas... umm, wait...

    --
    Previously: "Linux... Toward the Sunrise..." Now: "Linux... Toward the-- No, now, part of Every Sunrise"
  14. Re:oh wow! Maybe it arose out of a steady by vajaradakini · · Score: 1

    There aren't black giants, but there are black holes... perhaps this gives your imagination license to take your thoughts into the gutter. :P

    --
    what's that now?
  15. I wonder if Cheela can live there? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Obscure?

  16. New Star, New Standard Candle by physburn · · Score: 0

    Look at the diagram, the way, the period runs with temperature, suggesting, that for
    a particular temperature and period, a third variable, no doubt luminosity. If this
    is so, then astronomies have just found a very fast new standard candle, a light source
    of known brightness, that can be used to find the distance to object. In future our
    sky maps may just get that much more accurate.