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The white dwarf cooling anomaly is an additional cooling delay that has been observed for ultramassive forms of these compact stellar remnants. [1] [2] As a white dwarf cools, crystallization of the interior releases energy, slowing the cooling rate.
If many electrons are confined to a small volume, on average the electrons have a large kinetic energy, and a large pressure is exerted. [2] [3]: 32–39 In white dwarf stars, the positive nuclei are completely ionized – disassociated from the electrons – and closely packed – a million times more dense than the Sun.
Sirius B, which is a white dwarf, can be seen as a faint point of light to the lower of the much brighter Sirius A. A white dwarf is a stellar core remnant composed mostly of electron-degenerate matter. A white dwarf is very dense: in an Earth sized volume, it packs a mass that is comparable to the Sun.
A slowly cooling stellar ember called a white dwarf with a scar on its face is providing new insight into the behavior of certain "cannibal" stars at the end of their life cycle. Using the ...
White dwarfs are luminous not because they are generating energy but rather because they have trapped a large amount of heat which is gradually radiated away. Normal gas exerts higher pressure when it is heated and expands, but the pressure in a degenerate gas does not depend on the temperature.
White dwarfs are among the most compact objects in the cosmos, though not as dense as a black hole. Stars with up to eight times the mass of our sun appear destined to end up as a white dwarf.
KPD 0005+5106 is a helium-rich white dwarf [4] located 1,350 light-years from Earth. [2] As a "pre-white dwarf", it is believed to still be in the helium-burning phase, just before nuclear fusion finally stops. It is one of the hottest known white dwarfs, with a temperature of 200,000 K. [3]
Carbon detonation or carbon deflagration is the violent reignition of thermonuclear fusion in a white dwarf star that was previously slowly cooling. It involves a runaway thermonuclear process which spreads through the white dwarf in a matter of seconds, producing a type Ia supernova which releases an immense amount of energy as the star is blown apart.