Topic description and stories

Astronomers observe light bending around an isolated white dwarf

02 Feb 2023

Astronomers have directly measured the mass of a dead star using an effect known as gravitational microlensing, first predicted by Einstein in his...

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Artist's impression of planet formation

Study of ‘polluted’ white dwarfs finds that stars and planets grow together

14 Nov 2022

A team of astronomers have found that planet formation in our young Solar System started much earlier than previously thought, with the building...

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Artist impression of a rocky and water-rich asteroid being torn apart by the gravity of the white dwarf star GD 61.

Watery asteroid in dying star points to habitable exoplanets

10 Oct 2013

Latest research on rocky relics suggests a distant planetary system, now past its “death throes”, had very similar water ‘delivery system’ to our own...

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Breakthrough study models dying stars in a lab

15 Feb 2013

Researchers have successfully recreated the conditions close to the surface of a white dwarf, allowing them to examine what happens in one of the...

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