Tip: tap a highlighted word to see its meaning in Urdu.
Scientists discovered that trace elements can change the usual white color of white dwarf stars to shades like green.
Level 1 · Easy
When we look at the night sky, most stars look white. Some stars look blue, and some look red. Blue stars are hotter than red stars.
A white dwarf is a tiny, dim star. It forms after a star like the Sun finishes its nuclear fuel. Usually, these stars look white.
Now, astronomers found that some white dwarfs can show other colors. They can look green, yellow, cyan, pink, or purple.
This happens when rocks and gas fall onto the star. These tiny elements mix with the air around the star and change its color. But these stars are too to see with our eyes tonight.
Level 2 · Medium
Apart from our Sun, stars are very far away from Earth, so they look like tiny points in the night sky. Most stars seem white, but some appear red or blue. A star’s color depends on its heat, meaning blue stars have higher temperatures than red stars.
A white dwarf is a small, dim star left behind after a star like our Sun burns through all of its nuclear fuel. A recent illustration featured a white dwarf named WD J1330+6435, which has gas and rocks circling it in an .
Astronomers recently discovered that some of these white dwarf stars do not stay white. Instead, they can appear green, cyan, yellow, pink, or purple. This unusual color shift happens when gathered by the star with its .
Even though this creates rare views like a green star, stargazers cannot see them easily. These distant objects are simply too to spot in the sky tonight.
Level 3 · Real news English
Except for the Sun, every star is located so far from Earth that it appears only as a single point of light in the night sky. Most of these stars look white, although some are clearly red or blue. In general, these shades indicate temperature, with blue stars burning hotter than red ones.
A white dwarf is the tiny, core left over after a star similar to the Sun completely exhausts its nuclear fuel. Although they are named white dwarfs, astronomers recently discovered that some of these remnants can actually look yellow, cyan, pink, purple, or even green.
This visual change was highlighted in an illustration of WD J1330+6435, a white dwarf circled by an filled with orbiting gas and rocks. When from this surrounding material are accreted onto the star, they directly with the stellar . This chemical interaction alters the star’s light, shifting it away from its standard white appearance.
Despite this surprising discovery of colorful stellar bodies, skywatchers will not be able to observe them with the naked eye. Because these ancient stars are extremely faint, they remain hidden from ordinary view in the night sky.
Words to learn
- exhaust — ختم کرنا (khatam karna): to use up completely “The long journey will exhaust your energy.”
- faint — مدہم (madham): very dim or hard to see “A faint light came from the small candle.”
- trace elements — معمولی مقدار میں عناصر (mamooli miqdar mein anasir): very small amounts of chemical substances “The river water carries trace elements from the mountains.”
- stellar — ستارے کا (sitare ka): relating to a star “The telescope captured a bright stellar flare.”
- atmosphere — فضا (faza): the layer of gases around a planet or star “Dense clouds filled the planet's atmosphere.”
- remnant — باقیات (baqiyat): a small part that remains after the rest is gone “They found a stone remnant of the old fort.”
- accretion disk — گردشی گیس و مادہ کی قرص (gardishi gas o mada ki qurs): a ring of gas and rock orbiting a central body “Dust gathered into an accretion disk around the young planet.”
- interact — اثر انداز ہونا (asar andaz hona): to act together and have an effect on each other “The two chemicals interact to form bubbles.”
Quick quiz
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What determines whether a star typically looks red or blue?
- Its temperature
- Its distance from Earth
- The speed of its orbit
- The size of its rocks
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When does a star like the Sun become a white dwarf?
- When it collides with another sun
- When it exhausts its nuclear fuel
- When it turns into a blue star
- When it moves closer to Earth
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What surrounds the white dwarf WD J1330+6435 in the illustration?
- A group of green planets
- A massive ocean of water
- An accretion disk with gas and rocks
- A second burning sun
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Why can some white dwarf stars look green, pink, or cyan?
- They are hotter than any blue star
- Trace elements interact with their atmosphere
- They pass through Earth's atmosphere
- They only reflect sunlight
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What does the word 'faint' mean in this news story?
- Very fast
- Extremely hot
- Hard to see or dim
- Brightly glowing