Astronomers claim to have found the coldest, faintest white dwarf star ever documented

Jun 24, 2014 06:58 GMT  ·  By

This past June 23, researchers with the National Radio Astronomy Observatory announced the discovery of a previously unknown celestial body that they say is best described as an Earth-sized diamond.

In a paper published in the Astrophysical Journal, the astronomers who worked on this research project detail that the celestial body they discovered might be the coldest and faintest white dwarf star to have until now been identified.

What they mean is that the so-called Earth-sized diamond is basically a very dense object that was once a star similar to our Sun and that came into being when its parent star reached its end of life and collapsed.

Specialists with the National Radio Astronomy Observatory in the United States estimate that this object is about 11 billion years old, and say that, according to evidence at hand, it is chiefly made up of carbon and oxygen.

As detailed in the Astrophysical Journal, it is the carbon present in this celestial body's makeup that is believed to have crystallized as a result of low temperatures and very specific environmental conditions and to have birthed diamond-like structures.

What's interesting is that, in order to detect the presence of this Earth-sized diamond in space, researchers had to spend some time looking at the behavior of the pulsar accompanying it, i.e. PSR J2222-0137.

Thus, it was by analyzing PSR J2222-0137, which sits at a distance of 900 light-years from our planet, that researchers figured out that the pulsar was not alone, but gravitationally bound to a companion.

Besides, it was determined that this fast-spinning neutron star that came into being after massive star exploded as a supernova, and its yet-to-be-identified companied orbited each other once every 2.45 days.

Following investigations revealed that, whereas the pulsar's mass was 1.2 times that of our Sun, that of its companion was 1.05 times that of the same star, the National Radio Astronomy Observatory researchers say.

Eventually, it was concluded that, all things considered, the pulsar's companion must be a white dwarf star whose temperature is one of about 3,000 degrees Kelvin (2,700 degrees Celsius). However, the object is yet to be detected by ground-based telescopes.

Simply put, the astronomers' claim to have discovered an Earth-sized diamond in space is, for the time being at least, based on calculations and educated guesses. Still, it looks like the team of National Radio Astronomy Observatory astronomers expects they will soon confirm their discovery.

“Our final image should show us a companion 100 times fainter than any other white dwarf orbiting a neutron star and about 10 times fainter than any known white dwarf, but we don’t see a thing. If there’s a white dwarf there, and there almost certainly is, it must be extremely cold,” says Bart Dunlap.

“It’s a really remarkable object. These things should be out there, but because they are so dim they are very hard to find,” adds David Kaplan, a professor at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.