A&A press release: The hottest white dwarf in its class (12 December 2008)
- Details
- Published on 10 December 2008
A&A press release
Released on December 12th, 2008
The hottest white dwarf in its class |
Based on the article:
“Discovery of photospheric CaX emission lines
in the far-UV spectrum of the hottest known white dwarf (KPD
0005+5106)”, by K. Werner, T. Rauch, and J.W. Kruk
Published in Astronomy & Astrophysics Letters, 2008, vol. 492-3, pp. L43
A team of German and American astronomers present far-ultraviolet
observations of white dwarf KPD 0005+5106 and reveal that it is among
the hottest stars ever known with a temperature of 200 000 K at its
surface. Astronomy & Astrophysics
is publishing this discovery, which was made through spectroscopic
observations with NASA's space-based Far-Ultraviolet Spectroscopic
Explorer (FUSE).
Astronomy & Astrophysics
is publishing spectroscopic observations with NASA's space-based
Far-Ultraviolet Spectroscopic Explorer (FUSE) of the white dwarf KPD
0005+5106. The team of German and American astronomers who present
these observations show that this white dwarf is among the hottest
stars known so far, with a temperature of 200 000 K at its surface. It
is so hot that its photosphere exhibits emission lines in the
ultraviolet spectrum, a phenomenon that has never been seen before.
These emission features stem from extremely ionized calcium (nine-fold
ionized, i.e., CaX), which is the highest ionization stage of a
chemical element ever discovered in a photospheric stellar spectrum.
Stars of intermediate mass (1-8 solar masses) terminate their life as
an Earth-sized white dwarf after the exhaustion of their nuclear fuel.
During the transition from a nuclear-burning star to the white dwarf
stage, the star becomes very hot. Many such objects with surface
temperatures around 100 000 Kelvin are known. Theories of stellar
evolution predict that the stars can be much hotter. However, the
probability of catching them in such an extremely hot state is low,
because this phase is rather short-lived.
Since its discovery as a faint blue star in 1985, KPD 0005+5106
attracted much attention because optical spectra taken with
ground-based telescopes suggested that this white dwarf is very hot. In
addition, it belongs to a particular class of rare white dwarfs whose
atmospheres are dominated by helium. A detailed analysis of these
spectra, combined with ultraviolet observations performed with the
Hubble Space Telescope (HST), had led to the conclusion that KPD
0005+5106 has a temperature of 120 000 Kelvin, which made it the
hottest member of its class. It was, however, rivaled by other
similarly hot white dwarfs, discovered a few years ago in the Sloan
Digital Sky Survey.
The FUSE observatory performed spectroscopy in the far-ultraviolet
wavelength range, which is inaccessible to HST. During its lifetime
(1999-2007), FUSE frequently observed KPD 0005+5106 because it was used
as a calibration target to track the telescope's performance. The team
of astronomers, including K. Werner, T. Rauch, and J.W. Kruk, made use
of all accumulated data and obtained a dataset of outstanding quality.
Close inspection revealed the presence of two emission lines from
calcium, and detailed stellar atmosphere modeling confirmed their
photospheric origin. The analysis proves that the temperature must be
200 000 Kelvin, for the presence of these emission lines to be possible.
Although theory predicted the existence of such hot white dwarfs, the
star nevertheless represents a challenge to our concepts of stellar
evolution because of its composition. The measured calcium abundance
(1-10 times the solar value) in combination with the helium-rich nature
of its atmosphere represents a chemical surface composition that is not
predicted by stellar evolution models.

Fig. 1 - White dwarfs in the globular cluster M4. In this picture, only the faintest stars are white dwarfs. © NASA and H. Richer (University of British Columbia)
[1] The team includes K. Werner, T. Rauch (Universität Tübingen, Germany), and J. W. Kruk (Johns Hopkins University, USA).
Discovery of photospheric CaX emission lines in the far-UV spectrum of the hottest known white dwarf (KPD 0005+5106), by K. Werner, T. Rauch, and J. W. Kruk.
Astronomy & Astrophysics Letters, 2008, volume 492-3, pp. L43. Full article available in PDF format
A German press release from Univesität Tübingen is available at http://www.uni-tuebingen.de/uni/qvo/index.html
Contacts:
- Science:
Dr. Klaus Werner
Institut für Astronomie und Astrophysik
Kepler Center for Astro and Particle Physics
Universität Tübingen
72076 Tübingen, Germany
Email: werner (at) astro.uni-tuebingen.de
Phone: +49 (0) 7071 2978601
- Press office:
Dr.
Jennifer Martin
Journal Astronomy & Astrophysics
61, avenue de l'Observatoire
75014 Paris, France
Email: aanda.paris (at) obspm.fr
Phone: +33 1 43 29 05 41
© Astronomy & Astrophysics 2008