Death star bends light

The material density in a dead star is so great that light cannot be transmitted directly because of its gravitational pull.

Space telescope Kepler and experts of the American Palomar Observatory found the super-solid white dwarf died in a binary star system.KOI-256 , its name, is about the size of the earth, but its mass is equivalent to the sun (solar mass is about 333,000 times the Earth). It and a red dwarf make up the double star system, Livescience reported.

The size of the white KOI-256 dwarf is much smaller than that
Red dwarf star, but the red dwarf star must revolve around it. (Photo: NASA)

"KOI-256's material density is so great that although it is many times smaller than a red dwarf, the red dwarf is revolving around it," Phil Muirhead, an astronomer from the California Institute of Technology in the United States, said. expression.

Data from the Kepler space telescope shows that the terrible gravitational pull from KOI-256 causes light from its "companion" to bend. Scientists call this phenomenon "gravitational amplification" , part of general relativity of genius physicist Albert Einstein.

This is the first time astronomers have discovered a star capable of bending light.

"We have witnessed Einstein's general theory of relativity in a distant star system , " Doug Hudgins, a scientist from the US Aerospace Agency (NASA), commented.

Hudgins and colleagues' findings will be published in the Astrophysical Journal on April 20.