Back to Show
PBS Space Time
How An Extreme New Star Could Change All Cosmology
Season 7
Episode 25
A new white dwarf has been discovered (poetically named: ZTF J1901+1458) that’s doing some stuff that no white dwarf should ever be able to do. In fact, it has multiple properties that are so extreme that it almost certainly did NOT form in the way that we thought all white dwarfs formed. This one peculiar point of faint light may change our understanding of all cosmology.
Sign up now for inspiring and thought-provoking media delivered straight to your inbox.
Support Provided By

16:58
Quantum energy teleportation may be as close as we get to transporter beams. But how close is that?

14:50
Why is there any matter in the universe? A new antimatter breakthrough at LHC holds clues.

16:30
There’s an extremely good chance that Earth once did have a ring system.

17:23
How is it possible to tell if a space rock will one day collide with the Earth?

15:58
Did you know that many of us have up to 4% neanderthal DNA?

16:35
What if the Big Bang was just an endless cycle?

19:39
Why are billions suddenly being pumped into fusion startups?

16:36
The universe should've collapsed after the Big Bang, but a light Higgs boson let us exist.

14:30
Maybe dark energy doesn't exist?

18:32
Dark matter has eluded us for many decades but we may be able to discover more now.

15:35
What do you get if you combine something that’s infinitely massive and negative infinitely massive?

13:39
What does an electron really look like?