White Dwarfs Might Be Less Dead Than We Thought
White Dwarfs Might Be Less Dead Than We Thought At the end of their lives, most stars including the Sun will become white dwarfs. After a red dwarf or sun-like star consumes all the hydrogen and helium it can, the remains of the star will collapse under its own weight, shrinking ever more until the quantum pressure of electrons becomes strong enough to counter gravity. White dwarfs begin their days as brilliantly hot embers of degenerate matter and grow ever cooler and dimmer as they age. Because a white dwarf doesn’t produce new energy through nuclear fusion, it has only remnant thermal energy to keepRead More →