dwarf | Common News Update

Mar22020 by adminNo Comments

Massive white dwarf star is the product of a stellar merger

Science

March 2 (UPI) -- An unusual white dwarf star was formed by a merger between two smaller white dwarfs, according to a new analysis by an international team of astronomers. The ultra-massive white dwarf, WDJ0551+4135, is located 150 light years from Earth. It was first identified by the European Space Agency's Gaia telescope survey. Astronomers keen on studying especially large white dwarfs conducted a followup survey of the star using the William Herschel Telescope. Their observations -- detailed Monday in the journal Nature Astronomy -- revealed an unusual envelope surrounding the star, an atmosphere rich in carbon. "This star stood out as something we had never seen before. You might expect to see an outer layer of hydrogen, sometimes mixed with helium, or just a mix of helium and carbo...

Jun212019 by adminNo Comments

Jimmy Carr criticised over ‘offensive’ dwarf joke

Entertainment

By David Mercer, news reporter Jimmy Carr has been criticised by a charity for telling an "offensive" joke about dwarfism and abortion during his current stand-up tour.Little People UK, which was co-founded by actor Warwick Davis, said it was "saddened" by the comedian's remarks and that it had been contacted by "members of the dwarfism community" who had raised concerns. Carr, who is due to perform in Chesterfield on Friday on his Terribly Funny stand-up tour, is reported to have said: "Is a dwarf an abortion that made it?" Image: The Little People charity, co-founded by Warwick Davis, has criticised Carr Little People UK said it had approached the comic and his agents and called for him to "stro...

May212019 by adminNo Comments

Astronomers find white dwarf merger that may spawn future fiery explosion

Science

May 21 (UPI) -- Astronomers have discovered a rare celestial object. Scientists suggest the fiery orb was created when two dead white dwarfs merged and become reanimated. According to a new paper describing the unusual stellar object, published this week in the journal Nature, the orb is a ticking time bomb -- likely to explode with a fiery bang in the near future. Scientists first spotted the object while analyzing data collected by the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, or WISE, satellite. Astronomers spotted a bright star at the center of a gas nebula, but were surprised to find no visible light, only infrared radiation, emanating from the nebula. When astronomers analyzed the spectrum emitted by the nebula and its central star, they determined the object contained neither hydrogen ...

Jul172017 by adminNo Comments

Citizen scientists discover new brown dwarf

Science

July 17 (UPI) -- Astronomers' inventory of brown dwarfs is growing thanks to the diligent work of citizen scientists.As part of the NASA-funded Backyard Worlds: Planet 9 project, four citizen scientists helped identify a new brown dwarf, WISEA J110125.95+540052.8, which was detailed this week in the Astrophysical Journal Letters. The four amateur astronomers are listed as co-authors.One of the citizen scientists is Rosa Castro. Castro is a therapist by day, but spends many nights scanning "flip books" of time-lapse space images.Like the hundreds of other citizen scientists working on the Backyard Worlds project, Castro is looking for even the slightest anomaly among the space images -- a sign that NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer infrared images may have documented the transit of...