ZTF J1901+1458 (nicknamed Z; formally ZTF J190132.9+145808.7; Gaia ID 4506869128279648512) is a
white dwarf
A white dwarf is a stellar core remnant composed mostly of electron-degenerate matter. A white dwarf is very dense: its mass is comparable to the Sun's, while its volume is comparable to the Earth's. A white dwarf's faint luminosity comes fro ...
, about 135 light years away roughly in the direction of
Epsilon Aquilae, discovered by the
Zwicky Transient Facility circa 2021. It is the most massive white dwarf yet found, having 1.35 times the mass of the
Sun, nearly the largest expected mass for this type of object. Its radius is about , about the size of
Earth
Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the only astronomical object known to harbor life. While large volumes of water can be found throughout the Solar System, only Earth sustains liquid surface water. About 71% of Earth's surfa ...
's
Moon
The Moon is Earth's only natural satellite. It is the fifth largest satellite in the Solar System and the largest and most massive relative to its parent planet, with a diameter about one-quarter that of Earth (comparable to the width of ...
, and it rotates once every 7 minutes.
The object's extreme rate of spin is hard to explain without supposing Z to be the result of a white dwarf merger, near the upper mass limit of a stable end product. Larger white dwarf mergers could be another mechanism of
supernova
A supernova is a powerful and luminous explosion of a star. It has the plural form supernovae or supernovas, and is abbreviated SN or SNe. This transient astronomical event occurs during the last evolutionary stages of a massive star or when ...
production, which is not necessarily taken into account in how we have traditionally inferred
dark energy
In physical cosmology and astronomy, dark energy is an unknown form of energy that affects the universe on the largest scales. The first observational evidence for its existence came from measurements of supernovas, which showed that the univer ...
from supernova observations.
See also
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List of white dwarfs
Bibliography
*
References
White dwarfs
Aquila (constellation)
Astronomical objects discovered in 2021
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