WISE discovers mystery dust around a dead star with a close companion
Wednesday, November 14, 2012 - 08:30
in Astronomy & Space
(Phys.org)—Astronomers using data from NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, or WISE, have discovered dust in an unusual place—just outside the reach of a binary star system with a short 3-hour orbit. The binary consists of a white dwarf with a red dwarf companion separated by a distance slightly larger than the radius of the Sun; an extremely small stellar orbit by astronomical standards.