One side of a newly-discovered white dwarf star, dubbed Janus after the two-faced Roman god of transition, is composed of helium and the other of hydrogen.
"The surface of the white dwarf completely changes from one side to the other," explained Ilaria Caiazzo, a postdoctoral scholar at Caltech who led the new study. "When I show the observations to people, they are blown away."
The follow-up observations showed that Janus is rotating on its axis every 15 minutes. Further observations using the W. M. Keck Observatory in Hawai'i then revealed the unusual twin faces of the white dwarf. Using a spectrometer, the team revealed the presence of hydrogen on one side and only helium on the other side.The team behind the discovery acknowledged that they don't know the cause behind this never-before-seen phenomenon, though they have provided a few hypotheses.
As a white dwarf cools over time, the hydrogen on its surface sometimes mixes into the star's interior and helium becomes more prevalent. Magnetic fields may be causing this evolution to take place on one side more than the other.
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