CrimeaPRESS reports:
An international team of astronomers has discovered a white dwarf pulsar believed to be one of the rarest stars in our galaxy. It is only the second such object known in the Milky Way.
The results of the study were published simultaneously in two articles published in journals nature astronomy And Astronomy & Astrophysics. Briefly about the opening tells science alert. The newly discovered star is located just 773 light-years from Earth. It was named J1912-4410 and was classified as a white dwarf pulsar. This is an extremely rare type of star. So far, such an object has only been found in the Milky Way once.
Therefore, there was no separate classification of such objects. However, a new discovery confirms that these stars exist and are different from other stars, so they can claim their own class. By the way, the authors of the papers write that the study of such stars will give the key to unraveling the mystery of strange signals recorded throughout the Milky Way, which defy the usual explanation. In addition, the discovery confirms that the white dwarf’s magnetic field is generated by an internal «dynamo» similar to how the Earth’s liquid core generates its magnetic field. Only these stars have a much more powerful magnetic field than our planet.
The origin of magnetic fields is a big and open question in many areas of astronomy, and this is especially true for white dwarfs., says astrophysicist Ingrid Pelisoli. — The magnetic fields of white dwarfs can be over a million times stronger than the Sun’s magnetic field. The discovery of J1912-4410 was an important step forward in the study of this area.
Pulsars are thought to be neutron stars, a type of «dead» star. In fact, this is what remains of the star after its death. The pulsar can be 8-30 times smaller than the original size of the star. It is formed when a star completely burns its hydrogen fuel. It sheds its outer material, and its core collapses under the influence of gravity. As a result, a superdense object is formed.
A neutron star rotates rapidly, up to millisecond periods, while throwing very powerful beams of electromagnetic radiation into space. It seems to pulsate, hence the name of such objects. White dwarfs are similar «stellar remnants». These are the cores of dead stars with a mass less than eight solar masses. They are less dense than neutron stars and have a larger radius.
A few years ago, it was believed that they do not turn into pulsars. However, in 2016, astronomers discovered an unusual object, which was named a white dwarf pulsar. It was the first such object in the history of observations, it was named AR Scorpii. Now the database has been replenished with information about the second such object.
source: «Russian newspaper»
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