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Phil Plait Bad Astronomy sn1181

The 900-year-old mystery of the missing supernova has finally been solved

By Phil Plait 3 years ago

Philip Plait Bad Astronomy White Dwarf Moon Earth

Tiny but mighty: Astronomers find the smallest but most massive white dwarf ever seen

By Phil Plait 3 years ago

The nearest white dwarf to us, Sirius B, has the mass of the Sun but the size of the Earth. For comparison, the Sun is over 100 times wider than Earth. Credit: ESA and NASA

Meet G117-B15A: the most stable optical clock in the Universe

By Phil Plait 3 years ago

NASA image of a white dwarf star

Do white dwarfs still hang on to the crushed bones of their dead planets?

By Elizabeth Rayne 3 years ago

Henize 3-1357, aka the Stingray Nebula, seen in 1996 and 2006 by Hubble, has changed significantly over that time, fading in many places. Credit: NASA, ESA, B. Balick (University of Washington), M. Guerrero (Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía), and G

The rise and rapid fall of the Stingray Nebula

By Phil Plait 3 years ago

Artwork depicting the white dwarf WD 1856 and its massive planet, far larger than the star itself. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center

Astronomers find the first intact planet orbiting a white dwarf… and it's far bigger than its star!

By Phil Plait 4 years ago

A deep color image of the planetary nebula NGC 6804 shows it to be a relatively standard example of its kind, but there are glowing red clouds near it whose origin is unclear. Credit: Adam Block/Mount Lemmon SkyCenter/University of Arizona

A dying star’s magnetic racing stripes

By Phil Plait 4 years ago

white dwarf supernova

Grab your sunscreen, because an intense UV flash from an exploded star could light up a cosmic mystery

By Elizabeth Rayne 4 years ago

Artwork depicting a star with material being pulled off by a nearby black hole. Credit: NASA/CXC/M.Weiss

A black hole is slowly eating the corpse of a dead star

By Phil Plait 4 years ago

An artist’s rendering of a comet (which is very similar to an asteroid) getting torn apart near a white dwarf. Many white dwarfs have rings of dust around them as well, more evidence of a planetary system orbiting them. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Even after the Sun dies, it'll still destroy asteroids

By Phil Plait 4 years ago