How An Extreme New Star Could Change All Cosmology
PBS Space Time

How An Extreme New Star Could Change All Cosmology

C1AdvancedOctober 31, 202622 min
  • Science

Sign Up on Patreon to get access to the Space Time Discord! https://www.patreon.com/pbsspacetime Uploaded 03-08-21 A new white dwarf has been discovered (poetically named: ZTF J1901+1458) that’s doing some stuff that no white dwarf should ever be able to do. In fact, it has multiple properties that are so extreme that it almost certainly did NOT form in the way that we thought all white dwarfs formed. This one peculiar point of faint light may change our understanding of not just white dwarfs, but of all cosmology. <br...

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change the way we think about the universe on the largest scales.

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some stuff that no white dwarf should ever be able to do.

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It has been said that scientific progress is accompanied not by cries of Eureka, but instead by murmurs of, huh, that's weird. Well, we've just observed a faint point of light on the sky whose weirdness could change the way we think about the universe on the largest scales.

0:16

This particular, huh, that's weird, takes the form of a white dwarf star that's doing some stuff that no white dwarf should ever be able to do. In fact, it has multiple properties that are so extreme that it almost certainly did not form in the way we thought that all white dwarfs formed.

0:38

This one particular point of faint life made change your understanding not just of white dwarfs, but of all of cosmology. Mysterious, huh? This particular mystery began at the Zwicky Transient Facility in California, a telescope

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