White Dwarfs

White dwarfs are the small, dense remains of stars that have reached the end of their lives. They usually form after stars similar in size to the Sun have used up their nuclear fuel and released their outer layers into space.

The remaining core becomes a white dwarf, an object with a mass comparable to the Sun compressed into a volume close to that of Earth. Because of their extreme density, a small amount of white dwarf material would weigh a great deal on Earth.

White dwarfs no longer produce energy through nuclear fusion, but they continue to shine for a very long time because they slowly release the heat stored inside them. Over billions of years, they gradually cool and become fainter.

Some white dwarfs are part of binary systems, where they can interact with a companion star and gain matter from it. Studying white dwarfs helps astronomers understand the final stages of stellar evolution and the future of stars like our Sun.