Texas Astronomers Discover Pulsations In Crystalized, Dying Star

Astronomers from The University of Texas at Austin and colleagues have used the 2.1-meter Otto Struve Telescope at the university’s McDonald Observatory to discover pulsations from the crystalized remnant of a burnt-out star. The finding will allow astronomers to see below the star’s atmosphere and into its interior, much like earthquakes allow geologists to study compositions below Earth’s surface. The findings appear in the current issue of The Astrophysical Journal Letters.

The Texas astronomers made their discovery in collaboration with astronomers from Brazil’s Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, the University of Oklahoma, and the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory.

The star, GD 518, is roughly 170 light years from Earth in the constellation Draco, but far too faint to be seen without a telescope. It is a white dwarf, a star at the end of its life cycle that is essentially just a burnt-out core, the ashy byproduct of previous epochs of nuclear fusion.

The star is unique in that much of it is likely suspended in a state more akin to a solid than a liquid or gas. The interiors of dying stars can become crystalized similar to the way in which frigid water freezes into ice, like the slow formation of glaciers in cooling ocean water.

Full Story: http://mcdonaldobservatory.org/news/releases/2013/06/19