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In 1917, Adriaan van Maanen discovered van Maanen's Star, an isolated white dwarf. These three white dwarfs, the first discovered, are the so-called classical white dwarfs.
- Black Dwarf
Formation. A white dwarf is what remains of a main sequence...
- White Dwarf (Disambiguation)
A white dwarf is a compact star that is no longer generating...
- List of White Dwarfs
Van Maanen 2. 1917. Van Maanen's star is also the nearest...
- Degenerate Star
In astronomy, the term compact object (or compact star)...
- Black Dwarf
Jun 14, 2024 · Learn about the definition, size, mass, life cycles, and facts of white dwarf stars, the endpoint of the evolution of intermediate- and low-mass stars. Find out how they are supported by degeneracy pressure, have a limiting mass, and cool down over time.
- The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
- How Are White Dwarf Stars born?
- What Are They Made of?
- But Not All White Dwarfs Go Quietly
- Sometimes A White Dwarf Ends Up as Supernova
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White dwarfs are born when a star shuts down. A star spends most of its life in a balance between gravity and outward gas pressure. The weight of a couple octillion tons of gas pressing down onto the core causes hydrogen nuclei to fuse together, forming helium. This is called nuclear fusion. The steady release of thermonuclear energy from this proc...
A newly born white dwarf consists of helium, carbon, and oxygen nuclei, swimming in a sea of highly energetic electrons. The combined pressure of the electrons holds up the white dwarf, so it doesn’t collapse into an even stranger entity like a neutron star or black hole. The infant white dwarf is incredibly hot, so it bathes the space around it in...
While solitary white dwarfs fade gradually, a white dwarf that orbits another star is highly explosive. It siphons gas from its companion, with hydrogen passing across a gaseous bridge and spilling onto the white dwarf’s surface. And as the hydrogen accumulates, its temperature and density eventually reaches a flash point. The entire shell of newly...
However, if the gas collects fast enough, it can push the white dwarf past a critical point. Then, rather than creating a thin shell of fusion, it brings the star suddenly back to life. Unregulated, the violent release of energy obliterates the stellar core in one of the most energetic events in the universe: a Type 1a supernova. The absolute lumin...
White dwarfs are the hot, dense cores of dead stars that mark the final stage of evolution for most stars, including our sun. Learn how they are born, what they are made of, and how they can explode or fade away in this astronomy essential.
Mar 4, 2022 · White dwarfs are what is left when stars like our sun have exhausted all of their fuel. They are dense, dim, stellar corpses — the last observable stage of evolution for low- and medium-mass...
Van Maanen 2. 1917. Van Maanen's star is also the nearest solitary white dwarf. [4] First white dwarf with a planet. WD B1620−26. 2003. PSR B1620-26 b (planet) This planet is a circumbinary planet, which circles both stars in the PSR B1620-26 system.
TitleStarDateDataNearestSirius18528.6 ly (2.6 pc )Farthest201310,000,000,000 ly z =1.914Oldest202111.5 billion yearsHighest surface temperature2015250,000 K (250,000 °C; 450,000 °F )Ancient white dwarf stars shine in the Milky Way galaxy. Stars like our sun fuse hydrogen in their cores into helium. White dwarfs are stars that have burned up all of the hydrogen they...
Stars like our Sun leave behind white dwarfs: Earth-size remnants of the original star’s core. More massive stars explode as supernovas, while their cores collapse into neutron stars: ultra-dense, fast-spinning spheres made of the same ingredients as the nucleus of an atom.
