Basic introduction To White Dwarfs

Heat changes the color of white dwarfs and they can be found blue, yellow, white and even red.

A white dwarf is no longer buring but is still realeasing heat.  Eventually white dwarfs will fade away. 

You can not see any white dwarfs from Earth with out a telescope.

An average white dwarf will have the mass of the Sun but it would be the size of the Earth.

A white dwarf that is comparable to the Earth in size has a density around 1,000,000,000 kg/m3

The density of a white dwarf is so great that a teaspoon full would weigh about one metric ton.

White Dwarfs emitt soft x-rays.  THese x-rays allow astronomers to study the atmosphere of white dwarfs.

The thin atmospheres of white dwarfs are almost completely made of pure helium or pure hydrogen.

Surface gravity of a white dwarf is 100,000 times that of gravity on the Earth.



Index | Impact: When Stars Collide | Physics of White Dwarfs | Evolution of Stars | Basic Introduction to White Dwarfs | Bibliography