The central star in the nebula IRAS 00500 + 6713 may be a new type. ESA’s XMM Newtown X-ray Telescope has seen the star and nebula glow green in this picture.
ESA / XMM-Newton, L. Oskinova / Univ. Potsdam, Germany
Far, far in the future, our sun will become a white dwarf star, a dense, dead remnant of itself. There are many white dwarfs hiding in the cosmos and, sometimes they collide. Astronomers believe the merger of two white dwarfs may have yielded a previously unseen type of star, a kind of zombie furnace that rose from the dead. When seen in X-rays, the nebula around this new star glows a striking green thanks to neon gas.
The European Space Agency announced an unusual view of the star on Monday, saying “this image shows a new type of star that has never been seen in the X-ray light before.” The star, J005311, is found in a dense cloud of dust and gas – a nebula – known as IRAS 00500 + 6713.
The star first came to the attention of astronomers in 2019, and it was, of course, a strange ball. “At the time, astronomers had already reported that the object had very high wind speeds and was too bright and therefore too massive to be an ordinary white dwarf,” ESA said in a statement on Monday.
A team led by astrophysicist Lidia Oskinova of the University of Potsdam in Germany revisited the star using ESA’s XMM-Newton X-ray telescope. The team published an article about the star in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics in December.
White dwarf collisions can be devastating for the stars involved, but these white dwarfs did not follow the typical playbook. According to ESA, the team suggests that “what we see in the image is a new type of X-ray source powered by the fusion of two white dwarfs.”
X-ray telescopes like XMM-Newton allow us to see cosmic objects in a different way than optical telescopes like NASA’s Hubble. “Many celestial objects generate X-rays in extremely violent processes,” ESA said. XMM-Newton can see this action and contribute to our understanding of nebulae, galaxies, supernovae and black holes.
The new X-ray study gives a more complete picture of what happens to the star in the nebula. Its fate is sealed. ESA said it is very unstable and is likely to die within a neutron star within 10,000 years – which happens when the fuel runs out at the end of its life. But it would have been delicious while it lasted.
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