White Dwarfs

News & Articles

A collage of space-themed citizen science project logos, including 'Milky Way Project,' 'Exoplanet Explorers,' 'Cool Neighbors,' 'Disk Detective,' and 'Backyard Worlds: Planet 9.

NASA’s NEOWISE Spacecraft Re-Enters Atmosphere, But More Discoveries Await!

2 min read

NASA’s NEOWISE (Near-Earth Object Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer) spacecraft re-entered and burned up in Earth’s atmosphere on Friday night, as…

Article4 weeks ago
Illustration center: blue-white star (white dwarf) rests on a grid representing the fabric of spacetime. Lower right of white dwarf: illustration of Hubble. Above white dwarf: the actual and observed position of the gravitationally lensed star.

For the First Time Hubble Directly Measures Mass of a Lone White Dwarf

5 min read

Astronomers using NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope have for the first time directly measured the mass of a single, isolated white…

Article2 years ago

Types

7 min read

Types of Stars The universe’s stars range in brightness, size, color, and behavior. Some types change into others very quickly,…

Topic
This visualization provides a three-dimensional perspective on Hubble's image of the nebula Gum 29 with the star cluster Westerlund 2 at its core. The flight traverses the foreground stars and approaches the lower left rim of the nebula Gum 29. Passing through the wispy darker clouds on the near side, the journey reveals bright gas illuminated by the intense radiation of the newly formed stars of cluster Westerlund 2. Within the nebula, several pillars of dark, dense gas are being shaped by the energetic light and strong stellar winds from the brilliant cluster of thousands of stars. Credit: NASA, ESA, G. Bacon, L. Frattare, Z. Levay, and F. Summers (Viz3D Team, STScI), and J. Anderson (STScI)

The Lives, Times, and Deaths of Stars

4 min read

Who among us doesn’t covertly read tabloid headlines when we pass them by? But if you’re really looking for a…

Article4 years ago
Image of white dwarf stars

When Dwarfs Meet Giants and Other True Cosmic Fairy Tales

4 min read

It’s easy to get lost in fantasy worlds through science-fiction movies and novels, but did you know that some of…

Article5 years ago

Space Station MAXI-mizing Our Understanding of the Universe

7 min read

Look up at the night sky … do you see it? The stars of the cosmos bursting in magnificent explosions…

Article11 years ago