Star flying through our galaxy
(ORDO NEWS) — Astronomers from the University of Warwick, while observing outer space, discovered a white dwarf, which, as a result of an explosion, left its orbit and is now rushing through our Milky Way galaxy.
During the study, the composition of the white dwarf’s atmosphere was studied. Scientists have suggested that they are dealing with a binary star that survived a supernova explosion and followed in free flight. The star itself and its companion set off in different directions across our galaxy.
A white dwarf is a star that is the remaining core of a red giant after the death of a huge star and the ejection of its outer layers. Such bodies lose their initial temperature over billions of years. Their atmospheres are usually hydrogen or helium with little carbon or oxygen.
The star was discovered back in 2015 and named SDSS J1240 + 6710. Then scientists were quite surprised by the composition of the atmosphere: they were able to detect only a mixture of oxygen, neon, magnesium and silicon. Some traces of carbon, sodium and aluminum were also found, which are the result of thermonuclear reactions in the past.
The atmosphere does not contain the usual “iron group”, which includes iron, nickel, chromium, manganese. This suggests one thing: the passage through the supernova stage was carried out partially before the moment when nuclear combustion stopped.
The speed of the white dwarf is 900 thousand km / h. The mass is 40% of the mass of the Sun, which is very small for this type of body. The star is unique: it has too high a speed of movement, a strange composition of the atmosphere and low weight. All this suggests that the space object came to us from a binary system and was subjected to thermonuclear combustion.
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