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A white dwarf acts as a lens for the sunshine of the star behind it
NASA/JPL-Caltech
The thriller of a star that appeared too small to exist has been solved – by the detection of one other star hiding in the identical system.
In 2019, astronomers introduced the invention of an uncommon system referred to as KIC 8145411 during which a white dwarf – the uninteresting, compact remnant left behind after sure stars exhaust their nuclear gasoline – was orbiting a sun-like star each 450 days. The system is a uncommon instance of a self-lensing binary,…