Tidal Forces Heat White Dwarfs to Unexpected Temperatures in Tight Binary Orbits

Not So Dead After All: Astronomers Reveal the Secret Behind Inflated White Dwarfs

Old binary star systems may contain stars that are even hotter than scientists previously believed. White dwarfs are the dense, compact remains left behind when stars exhaust their nuclear fuel, a process that will one day occur to our own Sun. These stellar remnants are known as degenerate stars because their internal physics defy normal [...]

When Tides Turn White Dwarfs Hot

White dwarfs are stellar corpses, the slowly cooling remnants of stars that ran out of fuel billions of years ago. Our Sun will eventually share this fate, collapsing into a compact object so dense that the heavier it becomes, the smaller it shrinks. This rather strange property is just one of the aspects of white dwarfs that makes them utterly fascinating and occasionally, utterly baffling. Sometimes we find white dwarfs as part of binary syste…

Tidal forces heat white dwarfs to unexpected temperatures in tight binary orbits

White dwarfs are the compact remnants of stars that have stopped nuclear burning, a fate that will eventually befall our sun. These extremely dense objects are degenerate stars because their structure is counterintuitive: the heavier they are, the smaller they are.

The tides are heating: White Dwarfs in binary systems run hotter than expected

A new study from Kyoto University has shown that white dwarfs, which were once thought to be relatively cool and dormant, can be significantly hotter than expected when locked in tight orbits with another star Tidal forces cause this heating, reshaping how astronomers view the evolution of these dense white dwarf stars. Understanding white dwarfs White dwarf stars are the final evolutionary stage of stars like our Sun. After exhausting their nuc…