Albus 1: A very bright white dwarf candidate

TL;DR

Albus 1 is a newly identified bright, blue star with white dwarf characteristics, potentially the sixth brightest isolated white dwarf, offering a valuable standard for spectrophotometry.

Contribution

This paper reports the discovery and initial characterization of Albus 1, a bright white dwarf candidate identified using Virtual Observatory tools.

Findings

Albus 1 has a magnitude of B_T = 11.75 and a very blue V_T-K_s color.

It exhibits proper motion similar to known white dwarfs.

If confirmed, it would be the sixth brightest isolated white dwarf.

Abstract

We have serendipitously discovered a previously-unknown, bright source (B_T = 11.75+/-0.07 mag) with a very blue V_T-K_s color, to which we have named Albus 1. A photometric and astrometric study using Virtual Observatory tools has shown that it possesses an appreciable proper motion and magnitudes and colors very similar to those of the well known white dwarf G 191-B2B. We consider Albus 1 as a DA-type white dwarf located at about 40 pc. If confirmed its nature, Albus 1 would be the sixth brightest isolated white dwarf in the sky, which would make it an excellent spectrophotometric standard.