Astronomers Identify WD J1330+6435, the First White Dwarf Found to Appear Chartreuse Green

19 October 2026National

A team led by astrophysicist Mark Hollands of the University of Warwick has identified WD J1330+6435, a white dwarf about 280 light-years away in the constellation Draco, whose spectrum implies a chartreuse-green colour to the human eye - a shade not previously recorded for a star. Its surface is about 4,000 degrees Celsius, and the colour is attributed to sodium interacting with helium in an extremely dense atmosphere. Sodium, calcium and lithium detected there are thought to be rocky planetary debris that fell onto the star. The same study reports the salmon-pink WD J1011+2845, 48 light-years away in Leo Minor, in RAS Techniques and Instruments.

Static GK

A white dwarf is the dense remnant of a low- or medium-mass star that has exhausted its nuclear fuel; it is roughly Earth-sized and is held up against collapse by electron degeneracy pressure | The Chandrasekhar limit, about 1.4 solar masses, is the maximum mass of a stable white dwarf | Sirius B, the companion of Sirius, was the first white dwarf to be identified

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