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Originally published in Science Express on 12 November 2009
Science 8 January 2010:
Vol. 327. no. 5962, pp. 188 - 190
DOI: 10.1126/science.1180228
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Reports

Two White Dwarfs with Oxygen-Rich Atmospheres

B. T. Gänsicke,1,* D. Koester,2 J. Girven,1 T. R. Marsh,1 D. Steeghs1

Stars with masses ranging from 7 to 10 times the mass of the Sun end their lives either as massive white dwarfs or weak type II supernovae, but there are only limited observational constraints on either evolutionary channel. Here we report the detection of two white dwarfs with large photospheric oxygen abundances, implying that they are bare oxygen-neon cores and that they may have descended from the most massive progenitors that avoid core collapse.

1 Department of Physics, University of Warwick, Coventry CV4 7AL, UK.
2 Institut für Theoretische Physik und Astrophysik, University of Kiel, 24098 Kiel, Germany.

* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: Boris.Gaensicke{at}warwick.ac.uk

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Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)