{"id":953088,"date":"2026-10-31T11:42:09","date_gmt":"2026-10-31T11:42:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/953088\/"},"modified":"2026-10-31T11:42:09","modified_gmt":"2026-10-31T11:42:09","slug":"white-dwarfs-arent-just-white-scientists-discover-dying-stars-turning-pink-and-green","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/953088\/","title":{"rendered":"White Dwarfs Aren\u2019t Just White. Scientists Discover Dying Stars Turning Pink and Green"},"content":{"rendered":"

The realm of stars resembles a fairy tale. In it, we find giants, supergiants, and also many dwarfs. Rather like the flames of a fire, most stars\u2019 colors are based on temperature. Cooler stars look orange, sun-like stars appear white, and the hottest ones shine light blue. However, there are exceptions, and astronomers have recently discovered some among the class of stars known as white dwarfs<\/a>.<\/p>\n

At the end of their lives<\/a>, stars with a mass similar to the sun expand and turn into red giants. Subsequently, they shed their gaseous envelope<\/a>, creating a planetary nebula that we can admire through telescopes. In place of the star, a white dwarf remains\u2014a highly condensed object the approximate volume of the Earth but the mass<\/a> of the sun.<\/p>\n

Initially, white dwarfs have extremely high temperatures, and so the first ones discovered shone from white to light blue. That\u2019s how they got their name. But according to a new study published in the journal RAS Techniques and Instruments<\/a>, the world of white dwarfs is actually far more colorful\u2014with some stars turning pink, green, and even purple.<\/p>\n

The researchers posit that density is the deciding factor. The atmospheres of the coolest white dwarfs can reach a density of approximately 1 gram per cubic centimeter. That\u2019s roughly the same density as water, which may not sound like much, but it\u2019s packed for a star, this being about a million times denser than the sun\u2019s atmosphere<\/a>. Under these conditions, any trace elements<\/a> like carbon, calcium, and sodium interact with the surrounding dense helium plasma and absorb light across a wider range of colors.<\/p>\n

Material from ancient planetary systems also plays a role. The closest planets can perish in the fiery embrace<\/a> of the red giant phase. Other planets, and especially asteroids, begin to collide<\/a> and migrate toward the dead star. Fragments of these bodies then integrate into the white dwarf’s atmosphere.<\/p>\n

Through a hobbyist\u2019s telescope, a white dwarf looks just like any other faint star. However, if observed up close, their colors would be much more varied. Carbon-rich white dwarfs tend to be pink or purple. According to calculations, white dwarfs whose atmospheres<\/a> have been enriched with material from shattered asteroids or other bodies will exhibit yellow and, in some cases, green shades. The coolest white dwarfs are often a baby blue, which is caused by hydrogen and helium atoms colliding<\/a> in their extremely dense atmospheres.<\/p>\n

One example is the star WD J1330+6435. With a temperature of around 4,000 degrees Celsius, it has accumulated rocky material from its planetary system, enriching its atmosphere with calcium, lithium, and sodium. These elements give it a light chartreuse color, making it the first known green star in our galaxy<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The realm of stars resembles a fairy tale. In it, we find giants, supergiants, and also many dwarfs.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":953089,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[800,49,48,10193,1181,18003,797,66,803,14311],"class_list":["post-953088","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-science","tag-astronomy","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-chemistry","tag-gravity","tag-light","tag-planets","tag-science","tag-stars","tag-telescope"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/953088","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=953088"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/953088\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/953089"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=953088"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=953088"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=953088"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}