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White Dwarfs detected near Earth

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  Astronomers using the Hubble Space Telescope recently discovered
  four "hidden" white dwarf stars orbiting right in our cosmic backyard.

  These dead stars are located within 65 light-years of Earth 
  - one is even the ninth-closest white dwarf to our Sun. 
  For decades, they remained completely invisible to us because
  they are locked in binary systems next to red dwarf stars.
  Because these red dwarfs are much larger and brighter in
  visible light, their intense glare completely drowned out the
  dim, cooling remnants of the white dwarfs. Scientists finally
  unmasked them by tracking the subtle "wobble" of the red dwarfs
  and using ultraviolet data to spot the hidden stellar corpses.

  Now, it is important /not/ to panic!

  There is absolutely /no/ danger to Earth, and you do /not/
  need to take any protective actions whatsoever. Even though
  65 light-years is "close" in astronomical terms, it translates
  to roughly 380 trillion miles away. These objects pose /zero/
  physical threat to our planet, our atmosphere, or our daily lives.

The study "Direct detections of white dwarfs in four WD+dM
post-common envelope binaries within 20 pc", authored by Mairi
W. O'Brien, David J. Wilson, Pier-Emmanuel Tremblay, and
colleagues, was published in the Monthly Notices of the Royal
Astronomical Society on July 13, 2026. The research can be
located using the Digital Object Identifier 10.1093/mnras/stag1195.

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White Dwarfs detected near Earth ram@zedat.fu-berlin.de (Stefan Ram) - 2026-07-15 14:13 +0000

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