white dwarf
Dense stellar remnant
A white dwarf is a small, dense stellar remnant—what remains after a sun-like star exhausts its nuclear fuel and sheds its outer layers.
Despite being roughly Earth-sized, a white dwarf packs about the mass of the sun, making it extraordinarily dense.
White dwarfs slowly cool over billions of years, eventually fading to darkness.
Our sun will become a white dwarf in about five billion years.
- starLuminous astronomical object
- coreCentral essential portion
- novaTemporary stellar brightening event
- planetary nebulaIonized gas from dying star
- supernovaExploding massive star
remnant · main sequence · dead star · binary system · helium · companion · carbon · hot · fusion · electron · binary · cosmic · mass · WD · compact · dying · cooling · collapse
white dwarfred giant
Aged star with cooled, expanded envelope
supergiant · red supergiant · blue supergiant · hypergiant · giant star
white, dwarf, whiten, whitish, whiteness, dwarfs, whitened, whitest, whitener