Gentle curve of WD J0135+5722 received with APO on December 23, 2023 (higher panel) and September 1, 2024 (backside panel). Credit score: arXiv (2025). DOI: 10.48550/arxiv.2501.13661
The use of the Gran Telescopio Canarias (GTC) and the Apache Level Observatory (APO), a global crew of astronomers has detected 19 pulsation modes in an ultra-massive white dwarf referred to as WD J0135+5722. The invention, introduced at the arXiv preprint server, makes WD J0135+5722 the richest pulsating ultra-massive white dwarf recognized thus far.
White dwarfs (WDs) are stellar cores left at the back of after a celeb has exhausted its nuclear gas. Because of their excessive gravity, they’re recognized to have atmospheres of both natural hydrogen or natural helium. Alternatively, a small fraction of WDs presentations strains of heavier parts.
In pulsating WDs, luminosity varies because of non-radial gravity wave pulsations inside of those gadgets. One subtype of pulsating WDs is referred to as DAVs, or ZZ Ceti stars—those are WDs of spectral kind DA, having best hydrogen absorption traces of their spectra.
Positioned some 165.5 mild years away, WD J0135+5722 is a white dwarf with a mass of about 1.11 sun lots and an efficient temperature of 12,415 Ok. Earlier research of WD J0135+5722 have labeled it as a possible pulsating ultra-massive white dwarf.
Due to this fact, WD J0135+5722 was once decided on as one of the most goals to seek for pulsations by means of a gaggle of astronomers led by means of Francisco C. De Gerónimo of the L. a. Plata Nationwide College in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
“Now we have begun a program aimed toward expanding the collection of detected UM [ultra-massive] DAVs and the pulsation modes in already recognized DAVs with the Gran Telescope Canarias (GTC) and Apache Level Observatory (APO),” the researchers defined.
The observations detected 19 distinct pulsation sessions of WD J0135+5722, starting from about 137 to at least one,345 seconds, conventional for ZZ Ceti stars. The astronomers famous that this discovery makes WD J0135+5722 the 6th pulsating ultra-massive white dwarf and the richest one with regards to the collection of detected frequencies—surpassing white dwarf BPM 37093 with 8 known pulsation modes.
With the intention to examine the periodicities within the mild curves of WD J0135+572, the astronomers computed the Fourier Transforms (FT) of each and every mild curve. This research allowed them no longer best to spot the frequencies of the pulsation modes, but in addition their respective amplitudes, stages and mistakes.
The find out about additionally estimated the mass of WD J0135+5722 the use of other strategies. It was once discovered that the white dwarf’s mass is roughly 1.12 sun lots if its core is manufactured from oxygen and neon, or 1.135 sun lots if the megastar has a carbon-oxygen core.
Summing up the consequences, the authors of the paper underlined the significance in their discovery. “This discovery is essential for long term investigations, because it sheds mild at the ultimate phases of high-mass stars and/or merger merchandise, probably serving as progenitors for supernovae,” the scientists concluded.
Additional info:
Francisco C. De Geronimo et al, Discovery of the richest pulsating ultra-massive white dwarf, arXiv (2025). DOI: 10.48550/arxiv.2501.13661
Magazine data:
arXiv
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