Scientists suprised by white dwarf energy

GREENBELT, Md., Jan. 2 (UPI) -- U.S. and Japanese scientists say they've observed a white dwarf star that emits pulses of high-energy X-rays as it whirls on its axis.

Observations from Suzaku, a joint Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency and NASA X-ray observatory, have challenged previous ideas that white dwarfs were inert stellar corpses that slowly cool and fade away, NASA said Wednesday in a news release.

The white dwarf is known as AE Aquarii.

Researchers said the hard X-ray pulsations from AE Aquarii are very similar to those of the pulsar in the center of the Crab Nebula, which is the shattered remnant of a massive star that ended its life in a supernova explosion. In both objects, the pulses appear to be radiated like a lighthouse beam, and a rotating magnetic field is thought to be controlling the beam.

NASA said astronomers think the extremely powerful magnetic fields are trapping charged particles and then flinging them outward at near-light speed. When the particles interact with the magnetic field, they radiate X-rays.