White Dwarf Star (Artist’s Concept)
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A smaller white dwarf star (left) pulls material from a larger star into a swirling accretion disk in this artist’s concept released Nov. 19, 2025, to illustrate the first use of NASA’s IXPE (Imaging X-ray Polarization Explorer) to study a white dwarf star.
IXPE spent nearly one week focused on EX Hydrae, a white dwarf star system located in the constellation Hydra, approximately 200 light-years from Earth. Using IXPE’s unique X-ray polarization capability, astronomers examined the star, unlocking the geometry of energetic binary systems.
Read more about EX Hydrae and IXPE.
Image credit: MIT/Jose-Luis Olivares