J0526+5934 is an ultra-short period double white dwarf, observations show

Utilizing ground-based telescopes, a world group of astronomers has noticed a binary system containing at the least one white dwarf, designated J0526+5934. The observational marketing campaign has revealed that the binary consists of two white dwarfs on an ultra-short interval. The discovering was reported in a paper printed February 6 on the pre-print server arXiv.

White dwarfs (WDs) are stellar cores left behind after a star has exhausted its nuclear fuel. Resulting from their excessive gravity, they’re recognized to have atmospheres of both pure hydrogen or pure helium. Nonetheless, a small fraction of WDs present traces of heavier parts.

Astronomers are concerned with discovering and finding out double white dwarfs (DWDs), as their mergers are believed to provide new white dwarfs with larger plenty. Nonetheless, though the galactic inhabitants of DWDs is estimated to be within the tons of of thousands and thousands, solely a small fraction of the observable inhabitants has been found so far.

J0526+5934 was initially recognized in 2019 as an especially low-mass (ELM) white dwarf candidate. Additional observations of this object have discovered that it’s a binary composed of an unseen white dwarf major almost as huge because the sun and a visual companion, with a mass of about 0.38 solar plenty, which can be a subdwarf or a low-mass white dwarf.

Now, new observations carried out by a bunch of astronomers led by Alberto Rebassa-Mansergas of the Technical College of Catalonia in Barcelona, Spain, shed extra mild on the properties of this method, indicating a white dwarf nature of the secondary star.

To begin with, the observations discovered that the seen element of J0526+5934 is much less huge than beforehand estimated. The information point out that this object has a mass of solely 0.26 solar plenty, subsequently it was categorized as an ELM white dwarf.

Based on the research, the seen ELM WD has a radius of roughly 0.065 solar radii and its efficient temperature is at a degree of 27,330 Okay. The star has a helium floor abundance (He/H) of about -2.20 dex and its cooling age was calculated to be 260 million years.

With regards to the unseen white dwarf, the outcomes counsel that it has a mass of about 0.71 solar masses. The astronomers assume that its effective temperature is decrease than 6,700 Okay.

On condition that the orbital period of J0526+5934 was measured to be roughly 0.342 hours, the authors of the paper categorized the system as an ultra-short interval indifferent double white dwarf binary. That is the fifth such system to this point found.

Summing up the outcomes, the researchers concluded that the 2 parts of J0526+5934 will merge in about 3 million years, which is able to consequence within the formation of a large white dwarf, with a mass similar to that of the sun.

© 2024 Science X Community