These Dying Stars Have Erratic ‘Heartbeats’

Astronomers using the planet-hunting spacecraft Kepler have discovered a dying star with irregular pulsations that cause the star to get a few percent brighter and fainter every few minutes.

White dwarfs have been known to pulsate for decades, and some are exceptional clocks, with pulsations that have kept nearly perfect time for more than 40 years. NASA Goddard Space Flight Center/CC BY 2.0

Astronomers using the planet-hunting spacecraft Kepler have discovered a dying star with irregular pulsations that cause the star to get a few percent brighter and fainter every few minutes.

They also observed massive outbursts every few days that significantly heated up its surface for many hours.

The star, a white dwarf called PG1149+057, is in the constellation Virgo, which is roughly 120 light years from Earth. Our sun will eventually become a white dwarf in more than 6 billion years, after it runs out of its nuclear fuel.

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