Overview
- The peer-reviewed study published in mid-October used spectra, not direct photos, to calculate how white dwarfs would look to human vision and singled out WD J1330+6435 as chartreuse-green.
- Researchers say the green tint arises because trace sodium in the star’s very dense helium atmosphere absorbs orange wavelengths, leaving light biased toward green.
- WD J1330+6435 lies about 280 light-years away in the constellation Draco and has a surface temperature near 4,000°C, according to the study’s reported parameters.
- The team also found other unusually colored white dwarfs, including a salmon-pink object, and estimates roughly 3 percent of white dwarfs may show similarly strong color shifts.
- Beyond the novel colors, the work uses surface elements like sodium, calcium and iron as evidence that white dwarfs accrete rocky debris from former planetary systems and promises larger surveys will refine how common these oddly colored remnants are.