A University of Iowa astrophysicist has helped NASA achieve a first-of-its-kind discovery by capturing the innermost surroundings of a white dwarf star with an X-ray telescope.
Breakthrough Discovery
Dustin Swarm, an astrophysicist and assistant professor at the University of Iowa, recently helped capture the first X-ray view of a white dwarf star. White dwarves are former stars similar in size to the sun that no longer generate energy.
Swarm’s main focus is compact objects, which he says are remnants of stars after they stop functioning as typical stars. Swarm said researching compact objects like white dwarves can help scientists learn more about the extremes of gravity and temperatures, as well as the size of the universe.
Original reporting: KCCI Des Moines — read the source article.
