July 6 - Light-Years, White Dwarf on Edge, Rogue Planets

July 6 Light-Years, White Dwarf on Edge, Rogue Planets by:

View larger. | The large yellow shell depicts the distance of a light-year. The smaller yellow shell depicts a light-month. Image via Wikimedia Commons.

How far is a light-year? Objects in our universe are extremely far away. They're so far away that kilometers or miles aren't a useful measure of their distance. So we speak of space objects in terms of light-years, the distance light travels in a year. A light-year is 5.88 trillion miles (9.46 trillion kilometers). Want to learn an ingenious way to portray light-year distances in terms of miles and kilometers? Click in, for a way to comprehend the vastness of the universe, using units of distance we know and use every day. White dwarf living on the edge Astronomers say they've discovered the smallest and most massive white dwarf yet seen. It's a star that's so small and so massive, they said, it might be on the verge of collapse. This object lies about 130 light-years away in the direction to the constellation Aquila the Eagle. It's thought to have formed when 2 less massive white dwarfs merged. Scientists said the new white dwarf is: "... packing a mass greater than that of our sun into a body about the size of our moon." Read about exotic white dwarfs and neutron stars. More rogue planets found drifting in Milky Way Astronomers said this morning that they've used data from the Kepler planet-hunter to find a new crop of rogue planets. They are free-floating planets, unconnected to any star. Like children shoved from a schoolyard by a bigger bully, these rogues might have been ejected from their own star systems by interactions with larger planets. Astronomers used gravitational microlensing to find the lonely planets amongst a sea of stars. Read more about rogue planets.

✨Astronomers and science aficionados, represent!✨ Everyone needs a go-to, cozy sweatshirt to curl up in, so go for one that's soft, smooth, and stylish. It's also perfect for when you’re stargazing on these cool summer evenings. What are you waiting for?   All EarthSky Store proceeds go toward keeping you updated on your cosmos and world at EarthSky.org! 🚀🙏🏼

Keep watching … Moon and Mercury, stars in Taurus Did you see the waning crescent moon this morning? On Wednesday morning, it'll appear near Mercury, often called the most elusive planet. Mercury is a touch brighter than Aldebaran, a bright star. But Aldebaran might look brighter because it's in less twilight.  Mercury and the moon will be a beautiful way to start your Wednesday morning ... if you can see them! Read more.

White dwarf living on the edge Artist's illustration of the newly found most-massive white dwarf, ZTF J1901+1458 (above in illustration). It has a whopping 1.35 times our sun's mass, packed into a sphere the size of Earth's moon (below in illustration). Imagine seeing these 2 in our sky? Image via Keck Observatory/ Giuseppe Parisi. Read more about the most-massive white dwarf. Submit your photo to EarthSky here! Subscribe & Support Did a friend forward EarthSkyNews to you? Click here to get your own subscription. Want to help support EarthSky? Forward this email to a friend. Share our content via your social media. Consider a donation. Go shopping at the EarthSky Store. Thank you for your support!

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