Overview
- The study, published Friday in RAS Techniques and Instruments by a team at the University of Warwick, identifies WD J1330+6435 as a white dwarf that would appear green to the human eye and WD J1011+2845 as the reddest white dwarf recorded.
- Researchers say WD J1330+6435’s green hue comes from sodium delivered by rocky debris that, inside a helium-rich and extremely dense atmosphere, absorbs orange and yellow wavelengths and leaves a green tint.
- The extreme red or salmon tone of WD J1011+2845 is linked to high surface abundances of carbon that alter its spectrum and shift its apparent color toward pink-red.
- The team derived perceived colors by modeling observed stellar spectra rather than direct imaging, because these distant white dwarfs cannot be seen as colored disks by the naked eye.
- Beyond color itself, the findings show that small amounts of heavy elements from destroyed asteroids or planets can act as chemical records of former planetary systems and offer a new probe of dense-atmosphere physics.