Space & Astronomy

White dwarf star's atmosphere is 99% oxygen

By T.K. Randall
April 4, 2016 ·  11 comments

What could create a white dwarf with almost a pure oxygen atmosphere ? Image Credit: Casey Reed / NASA Discovered 1,200 light years away in the constellation Draco, the star has been described as "very strange" and is the only one ever discovered that exhibits such peculiar properties.

A white dwarf is typically what remains after a star sheds its outer layers, leaving behind the core. Normally when this happens the star's heavier elements such as oxygen and carbon will sink down to the center of the core while the lighter elements, such as hydrogen and helium, float to the top.

In this case however, the white dwarf star discovered by astronomers possesses an atmosphere comprised of 99.99% oxygen - so how did it get this way ?"You have to wonder where this oxygen even came from," said Kepler de Souza Oliveira Filho, an astronomer at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul in Brazil.

One possible explanation is that the star was part of a binary system and that its companion star had siphoned off all of its lighter elements at some point in the past.

"There are lots of open questions before we can say that this changes our view of white dwarf evolution," said astrophysicist Patrick Dufour from the University of Montreal.

"This white dwarf might only be a freak... although often in science, it's the exception that makes you understand a great deal later on."

Source: Russia Today | Comments (11)

Tags: White Dwarf, Star