back to article Degenerate dwarfs tear neighbors limb from limb

NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has discovered a pair of white dwarf stars who have been "polluted" by planet-building elements that they have shredded and consumed. White dwarfs – also known as degenerate dwarf stars – are the aging remnants of middle-sized stars that have cooled and collapsed upon themselves. Due to that …

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  1. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    FTFY

    Well, a teaspoon of white-dwarf material would weigh several metric tons explode violently without the gravitational pull of the rest of the star to keep the atoms in electron degeneracy.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Joke

      @David

      The real question though; will it also help the medicine go down?

      1. harmjschoonhoven

        @ShelLuser

        There are no molecules at a WD, that severely restricts the choice of medicines.

        Only elemental iodine as a disinfectant comes to mind.

    2. TheVogon
      Mushroom

      Re: FTFY

      Damn, thought this was a PORG fight from the title.....

  2. Big-nosed Pengie
    Headmaster

    "Well, a teaspoon of white-dwarf material would weigh several metric tons – or tonnes, if you'd prefer."

    It's not what I prefer - it's how it's spelt.

    1. John Robson Silver badge
      Boffin

      Units,,,

      There are two units of mass - the ton and the tonne.

      They are quite similar, but not the same. It's not a question of spelling, but when one is talking about several of them per teaspoon you can take your pick.

      In ElReg units...

      1 ton is ~ 215 jugs

      1 tonne is ~ 238 jugs

      1. Chris Miller
        Headmaster

        Re: Units,,,

        No, the article refers to metric tons or tonnes, which is quite correct. In old money a tonne is ~2,209 pounds, while a US (short) ton is 2,000 pounds and a (British) Imperial ton is 2,240 lbs (or 20 hundredweights, 80 quarters, 160 stones - it's easy to tell who started school before 1970).

        Any way the teaspoon isn't intended to be a precise unit so distinguishing between the different ton(ne)s isn't really relevant - and like most kitchen measures it differs between US and British kitchens (dunno why, perhaps the pilgrim fathers took a smaller set of spoons).

        1. h3

          Re: Units,,,

          There is no metric ton.

        2. Martin Budden Silver badge
          Headmaster

          Re: Units,,,

          "Any way the teaspoon isn't intended to be a precise unit"

          Clearly you don't cook/bake much.

          1 Teaspoon [metric] = 5 millilitres = 0.000005 cubic metres

          1 Teaspoon [UK] = 1/8 fluid ounce [UK]

          1 Teaspoon [US] = 1/6 fluid ounce [US]

          1 Teaspoon [metric] = 1.4078031891 Teaspoon [UK]

          1 Teaspoon [metric] = 1.014420681 Teaspoon [US]

          1 Teaspoon [UK] = 0.7205699553 Teaspoon [US]

          Is that precise enough for you?

          1. I think so I am?
            Coat

            Re: Units,,,

            This is not the Teaspoon you are looking for

            1. tony2heads
              Joke

              teaspoon

              to quote spoon boy - There is no spoon

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Yawn

    Shouldn't that be "spelled", seeing as how the author is an American writing for an international website...?

    1. Jamie Jones Silver badge
      Thumb Down

      Re: Yawn

      No.

      American spelling irregularities != International

  4. John Smith 19 Gold badge
    Happy

    Oh Noooooooes Only 4 *billion* years left.

    I don't think I'll give up on the human race just yet.

    1. Steve Foster
      Holmes

      Re: Oh Noooooooes Only 4 *billion* years left.

      But if we don't stop squabbling about how to get off this rock, we're going to run out of time (and construction projects practically always overrun, so there's added urgency!).

    2. jonfr
      Boffin

      Re: Oh Noooooooes Only 4 *billion* years left.

      Don't worry, after 2 billion years there won't be any human race. Evolution is going to see too that, I have no idea what is going to be replace the human race in the future.

      1. Wzrd1 Silver badge

        Re: Oh Noooooooes Only 4 *billion* years left.

        Don't worry, in two billion years, the Earth will be experiencing 20% greater thermal input from the sun and evolution will be a moot point.

        1. Steve the Cynic

          Re: Oh Noooooooes Only 4 *billion* years left.

          "Don't worry, in two billion years, the Earth will be experiencing 20% greater thermal input from the sun and evolution will be a moot point."

          Don't worry, in no more than about ONE billion years, the rise in the Sun's luminosity will have boiled off all the Earth's oceans.

    3. Crisp

      Re: Oh Noooooooes Only 4 *billion* years left.

      But probably not long until the next big asteroid hits.

  5. This post has been deleted by its author

  6. Brewster's Angle Grinder Silver badge

    Degenerate Dwarf?

    Perhaps I don't get out enough, but I've never heard a "white dwarf" called a "degenerate dwarf before", not least because a neutron star has a good claim to being called a degenerate dwarf. (Perhaps a better name for a white dwarf would be an electron star?) And the author pretty much admits to making up the term "...white dwarfs (in these pages, white dwarfs are generally called degenerate dwarfs)...".

    But more important than whether it's right or not, it's bloody annoying.

    1. Chris Miller

      Re: Degenerate Dwarf?

      It's standard astronomical parlance to talk about a white dwarf consisting of degenerate matter. A degenerate (white) dwarf is a bit of a tautology, but it sure sounds funny.

      1. Destroy All Monsters Silver badge

        Re: Degenerate Dwarf?

        Burers!

    2. I think so I am?

      Re: Degenerate Dwarf?

      Its the 8th Dwarf that the other 7 disowned

  7. Adam Inistrator

    asteroids dont spiral down

    asteroids like anything else in free fall are satellites that orbit ... and orbits are ellipses not spirals. the only way for something to spiral down would be for it to lose kinetic energy somehow but that doesnt really occur in space.

    1. Duncan Macdonald

      Red Giant phase

      In the last stages of a low mass star (like the sun), it will become a red giant before it collapses into a white dwarf. During this phase there will be a lot of solar atmosphere out to a distance similiar to earths orbit.

      For asteroids inside this gas cloud, there will be friction leading to a loss of kinetic energy. This might be sufficient to cause them to lose enough energy to spiral in to the star.

  8. This post has been deleted by its author

  9. Tim Parker
    Meh

    Attributions for graphics / images.

    Please consider stopping publishing them without any, e.g. the asteroid graphic in this article, which has none in the visible text or in the source (just a link to an internal regmedia JPEG). The fact that the graphic is present in the linked in page on the NASA site is not really good enough, and i've seen too many on here where there is no link between the two at all. It is far too common at El Reg - kindly mind your manners or i'll have to set Orlowski on you... what do you think they are - orphan works ?

    Thank you.

  10. G R Goslin

    Query

    I don't quite get the thrust of this article. The sun and the planets, in any system are all developed from the same dust cloud and therefore have identical mixes. The only difference, in practical terms is that the planets are drastically impoverished in the light elements, hydrogen and helium, particularly in the inner orbits, having lost this in the creation of the planet in it's particular orbit

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Query

      Is the distribution "identical"? Are elements spread throughout the dust cloud evenly? (Think gravity etc)

      Once a planetoids forms, are elements free to escape (hydrogen etc) or do they "rain" in with further impacts (iron rich asteroids etc)?

      I would think there are many factors involved that would change the distribution of the compositions. :)

  11. Bhairava
    WTF?

    White Dwarf

    Massive degenerate white dwarf? Dense remnant of a middle-aged body that has collapsed in on itself? Jeez! I thought for a minute this article was about me!

    1. Wzrd1 Silver badge

      Re: White Dwarf

      I'm working on my own version of red giant stage.

  12. DJV Silver badge
    Coat

    Degenerate dwarfs

    I blame Snow White...

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