An international team of astronomers has discovered the eight hottest stars in the universe.
All of these stars have surfaces hotter than 100,000 degrees Celsius. The research was published in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.
The article is based on data collected by South African Telescope (SALT). It is the largest optical telescope in the southern hemisphere, with a 10m x 11m mirror.
White dwarfs are about the same size as Earth, but much more massive.
White dwarf stars are almost the same size as Earth, but much more massive.
The study describes that the study of helium-rich dwarf stars has led to the discovery of some very hot white dwarfs. The hottest star among them has a surface temperature of 180,000 degrees Celsius, while the Sun’s is only 5,800 degrees Celsius.
One of them is identified as The central star of a planetary nebula. This planetary nebula has just been discovered by scientists. This central star is one light year across.
Additionally, two of the other stars pulsate, or “change”. All of these stars are nearing the end of their life cycles as white dwarf stars. Due to their extremely high temperatures, they are several times brighter than the Sun. This phenomenon is considered unusual for white dwarf stars.
White dwarfs are about the same size as Earth, but a million times more massive. More precisely, their mass is almost equal to that of the Sun. They are the densest stars composed of normal matter.
Mr Simon Jeffery – an astronomer at the Armagh Observatory and Planetarium, who led the research – said: “Stars with temperatures of 100,000 degrees Celsius or more are extremely rare. It was surprising to find so many stars in our survey.”
Mr Jeffery said these findings will help improve understanding of the final stages of stellar evolution. This discovery also proves that SALT is an excellent telescope for this project.
Meanwhile, Professor Klaus Werner from the University of Tuebingen (Germany), co-author of the study, commented: “The discovery of eight very hot white dwarf stars and a new planetary nebula is extremely important. We hope that these discoveries will help shed light on the formation of our Galaxy. »
Article source: GDTĐ
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An international team of astronomers has discovered the eight hottest stars in the universe. All of these stars have surfaces hotter than 100,000 degrees Celsius….
