• Key Information

  • Van Maanen's Star

  • Type
    White dwarf star
  • Diameter
    9,510 miles
  • Distance from Sun
    14.1 light years
  • Mass
    0.67 M☉
  • Temperature
    10,574 °F
  • Date of Discovery
    1917
  • Learning Point
  • As one of the first and one of the closest white dwarfs discovered, Van Maanen's Star is also the closest solitary white dwarf we have found to Earth. It has a high metal content, making it an interesting star for astronomers to study.
  • Project
  • Create a list of some of the nearest white dwarf stars to us.
  • Location
  • Located in
    Pisces
  • Fun Facts
  • Though the star has about two-thirds of the mass of the Sun, it is just 1% of its radius.
  • It was accidentally found when Adriaan van Maaanen was looking for a companion star of another nearby star.
  • The heat they emit is the surviving heat from a long gone nuclear fision process, meaning the star gradually gets colder and colder.
  • The star contains metals which likely have come from smaller asteroids or similar objects being absorbed into it.