Skip to main content
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.

Support Provided By
Season
Will The Big Bang Happen Again (and Again)?
16:35
What if the Big Bang was just an endless cycle?
The Final Barrier to (Nearly) Infinite Energy
19:39
Why are billions suddenly being pumped into fusion startups?
The Crisis in Physics: Why the Higgs Boson Should Not Exist!
16:36
The universe should've collapsed after the Big Bang, but a light Higgs boson let us exist.
Does Timescapes Disprove Dark Energy?
14:30
Maybe dark energy doesn't exist?
How Many Black Holes Are In The Solar System?
18:32
Dark matter has eluded us for many decades but we may be able to discover more now.
Does Infinity - Infinity = an Electron
15:35
What do you get if you combine something that’s infinitely massive and negative infinitely massive?
What Does An Electron Actually Look Like?
13:39
What does an electron really look like?
The NEW Ultimate Energy Limit of the Universe
16:35
Is there a limit to how much energy you can cram into, or pull out of one patch of space?
Does the Planck Length Break E=MC^2?
17:19
I’d like to invite you to an even higher level of nerdom!
Can the Universe Remember? Exploring Gravitational Memory
11:43
Gravitational tsunamis exist and we’re on the verge of being able to detect them.
How Can Humanity Become a Kardashev Type 1 Civilization?
18:40
Will we ever become a Kardeshev Type-1 civilization and how can we get there?
Do Neutron Stars Shine In Dark Matter?
14:05
New data is telling us that Neutron stars may make one of the most popular dark matter candidates.
Active loading indicator