Cosmic neon lights

A team of astronomers led by Lidia Oskinova of the University of Potsdam, Germany, used ESA's XMM-Newton X-ray telescope to study the object that was originally discovered in 2019.

Back then, astronomers already reported that the object has very high wind speeds and is too bright, and therefore too massive, to be an ordinary white dwarf. They suggested that the object is a new type of star that survived the merger of two white dwarfs.

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Credit: ESA/XMM-Newton, L. Oskinova/Univ. Potsdam, Germany

This image shows a new type of star that has never been seen before in X-ray light. This strange star formed after two white dwarfs—remnants of stars like our sun—collided and merged.

But instead of destroying each other in the event, the white dwarfs formed a new object that shines bright in X-ray light.

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This artist’s impression video shows the central part of the planetary nebula Henize 2-428.

The core of this unique object consists of two white dwarf stars, each with a mass a little less than that of the Sun.