Supercomputer simulations show what it would look like if a zombie star whirled around a black hole and reignited.
The top images show density and the bottom show temperature. Credit: Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
Posted on 11/11/2018 1:29:21 PM PST by ETL
Scientists at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California suspect that midsize black holes might be just the right size to provide enough gravitational force to reignite a dead white dwarf star — the stellar corpse of a star that's about the mass of the sun and that's used up its nuclear fuel.
To test their idea, the team members ran supercomputer simulations of dozens of different close-encounter scenarios between these dead stars and midsize black holes. Every time a white dwarf got close to the Goldilocks black hole, the star reignited. The gravitational force from the black hole would cause the stellar material to fuse into varying amounts of calcium and iron, producing more fusion and iron as the star got closer to the black hole. This so-called nucleosynthesis process would reignite the once-dead star.
The team also found that the star's revival would create powerful electromagnetic waves that could be picked up by detectors in near-Earth orbit — meaning we might be able to "see" where it happened and find the medium-size black hole that gave it a second life.
"If the stars align, so to speak, a zombie star could serve as a homing beacon for a never-before-detected class of black holes," Peter Anninos, physicist and lead author on the study, said in a statement.
But the resurrected star wouldn't stay bright forever. The necromancing black hole would bring the star back to life — only to rip it apart later.
"As [the spherical star] approaches the black hole, tidal forces begin to compress the star in a direction perpendicular to the orbital plane, reigniting it," physicist Rob Hoffman, co-author on the study, said in the statement. "But within the orbital plane, these gravitational forces stretch the star and tear it apart.”
(Excerpt) Read more at livescience.com ...
but the only way to be sure is to get another 5 billion dollars.
Sounds like it would destroy nearby solar systems.
I’ll wait!
Hervé Jean-Pierre Villechaize
(April 23, 1943 – September 4, 1993)
was a French American actor
A white dwarf is very dense: its mass is comparable to that of the Sun, while its volume is comparable to that of Earth. A white dwarf’s faint luminosity comes from the emission of stored thermal energy; no fusion takes place in a white dwarf wherein mass is converted to energy.[1]
The nearest known white dwarf is Sirius B, at 8.6 light years, the smaller component of the Sirius binary star. There are currently thought to be eight white dwarfs among the hundred star systems nearest the Sun.[2]
The unusual faintness of white dwarfs was first recognized in 1910.[3] The name white dwarf was coined by Willem Luyten in 1922.
White dwarfs are thought to be the final evolutionary state of stars whose mass is not high enough to become a neutron star, that of about 10 solar masses.
This includes over 97% of the other stars in the Milky Way.[4].
After the hydrogen-fusing period of a main-sequence star of low or medium mass ends, such a star will expand to a red giant during which it fuses helium to carbon and oxygen in its core by the triple-alpha process.
If a red giant has insufficient mass to generate the core temperatures required to fuse carbon (around 1 billion K), an inert mass of carbon and oxygen will build up at its center. After such a star sheds its outer layers and forms a planetary nebula, it will leave behind a core, which is the remnant white dwarf.[5]
Usually, white dwarfs are composed of carbon and oxygen. If the mass of the progenitor is between 8 and 10.5 solar masses, the core temperature will be sufficient to fuse carbon but not neon, in which case an oxygen–neon–magnesium white dwarf may form.[6]
Stars of very low mass will not be able to fuse helium, hence, a helium white dwarf[7][8] may form by mass loss in binary systems.
The material in a white dwarf no longer undergoes fusion reactions, so the star has no source of energy. As a result, it cannot support itself by the heat generated by fusion against gravitational collapse, but is supported only by electron degeneracy pressure, causing it to be extremely dense. ...”
"Southeast Dawn" - August 29, 2018.
“causing it to be extremely dense”
This must be where my ex-boss used to live
Utter nonsense. A white dwarf is that way because it’s out of fuel.
Ad hoc poppycock.
Bring back real science and kick the computer simulators to the curb.
So can elections in Broward County.
Dems raise the dead every election.
Walking dead stars.....Keith Richard? Alice Cooper? Nancy Pelosi?
Ping . . .
Thanks BraveMan. I'm not cosmic, but I could use a pick me up once in a while.
I finally broke down & took two pick me ups after falling down in the garage Friday. Damn, I paid the price for being clumsy . . .
Sounds like one pick me up too many. ;^
The title left off the words “suspect” and “might.” Click bait.
Kinda makes one wonder when the Ultimate
Heat death of the Universe will actually occur.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.