Astronomers resolve mystery of white dwarf’s mass

New observations of the white dwarf/red dwarf binary star 40 Eridani BC by astronomers at the U.S. Naval Observatory (USNO) have revealed new, definitive values for the orbital period and masses of the components of this interesting stellar pair. A paper describing the observations and the results by Dr. Brian Mason, Dr. Bill Hartkopf, and intern Korie Miles has been accepted for publication in the Astronomical Journal.