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What is the largest known white dwarf star and where is it located?

Delmar Tethacot

Well, there's actually some debate over what the largest known white dwarf star is, but currently the title goes to a star known as "SDSS J074814.34+453350.3." This massive white dwarf was first discovered in 2015 as part of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, and its estimated mass is around 1.14 times that of our sun. Despite being larger than most other white dwarfs, it's actually quite small in the grand scheme of things - its radius is just 2,500 kilometers, making it roughly the size of Earth.

As for where it's located, that's a bit trickier to answer. SDSS J074814.34+453350.3 is located in our Milky Way galaxy, but it's not part of any known star cluster or galaxy grouping. Its exact location in the Milky Way is difficult to determine due to the limitations of current telescopes and observations. However, astronomers believe it's likely somewhere in the outer reaches of our galaxy.

What makes SDSS J074814.34+453350.3 so fascinating is that it's thought to be near the maximum possible size for a white dwarf star. You see, white dwarfs are formed when a star like our sun has exhausted all of its nuclear fuel and collapsed down to a very small size. However, there's a limit to how much mass a star can lose before it no longer has enough gravity to support itself against collapse - this is known as the Chandrasekhar limit, and it's around 1.4 times the mass of our sun. Stars that exceed this limit are thought to explode in what's known as a Type Ia supernova.

So, for a white dwarf like SDSS J074814.34+453350.3 to be so close to the Chandrasekhar limit is unusual and interesting to astronomers. It's thought that this star managed to reach such a size by undergoing a process known as accretion, where it gradually gathered material from a companion star or from a surrounding disk of gas. This caused it to grow larger and larger until it reached its current size.

Overall, the story of SDSS J074814.34+453350.3 is a fascinating example of how even dead stars can still hold surprises and mysteries for astronomers to uncover. While we may never know its exact location in the vast expanse of our galaxy, we can still marvel at its impressive size and the secrets it holds about the universe we live in.