APOD: 2026 October 22 – The First Green Star, WD J1330+6435

APOD Science APOD APOD: 2026 October 22 – The… Today’s APOD Archive Submissions Index Search Calendar RSS Education About Discuss   APOD Astronomy Picture of the Day Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. The First […]

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Oct 22, 2026 - 12:00
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APOD: 2026 October 22 – The First Green Star, WD J1330+6435

APOD

Astronomy Picture of the Day

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer.

A star shines with a greenish hue in front of a dark field with more distant stars, surrounded by a greenish disk with debris.

The First Green Star, WD J1330+6435

Explanation: Star light, star bright: is there a green star out tonight? Other than the Sun, all stars are so far from Earth that they appear as points in the sky. They are mostly white, but sometimes noticeably red or blue. This color typically relates to the temperature: blue stars are hotter than red stars. What about other colors? The featured image is an illustration showing WD J1330+6435, a white dwarf star, surrounded by an accretion disk with gas and rocks orbiting the star. White dwarfs are small, faint stars that are left over when a star like the Sun exhausts its nuclear fuel. Astronomers recently found that some white dwarf stars, despite their name, would appear yellow, green, cyan, pink, or purple. In these cases, trace elements that were accreted to these stars interact with the stellar atmosphere and shift its normally white color. But, alas! I wish I may, I wish I might, but they are too faint to see tonight…

Tomorrow’s picture: eye in the sky

Date October 22, 2026
Credit & Copyright Mark A. Garlick/University of Warwick
Authors & editors: Cecilia Chirenti, Robert Nemiroff, Jerry Bonnell, Keighley Rockcliffe
A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC,
NASA Science Activation & Michigan Tech. U.

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