Scientists have found evidence of the dimmest and coldest white dwarf ever detected.
According to NASA, a white dwarf is what stars like the Sun become after they have exhausted their nuclear fuel.
Scientists have possibly found evidence of the dimmest and coldest white dwarf star ever detected.
They did so using the National Radio Astronomy Observatory’s Green Bank Telescope and Very Long Baseline Array in combination with information provided by observatories.
Said one of the individuals on the team, "It's a really remarkable object. These things should be out there, but because they are so dim they are very hard to find."
While these ancient white dwarf stars emit very little light and have relatively low temperatures, theoretically they aren’t a rarity at all.
What is hard to come by is a telescope powerful enough to pick up the signs of one.
When stars die, they collapse and as time goes on continue to cool and fade.
This one, being an estimated 11 billion years old, is below the visibility range of even the best optics.
It was discovered through a combination of tracking radio waves being emitted by a companion star and careful calculations.
Given the white dwarf’s age and relatively cool estimated temperature of under 5 thousand degrees Fahrenheit, scientists say that it’s probably compressed to the point of being a hard mass of crystallized carbon, much like a diamond.
