White Dwarf

Friends,

No, this is not some strange fairy tale about an eighth dwarf related to Snow White. It is about a very small star, of which there are many in the universe. White dwarves are stars that are at the end of their lives. They are not very bright and make up about 6% of the stars that are known. They no longer have fusion reactions and therefore put out no energy. Since they have shed much or all of the hydrogen, helium and other gasses, what is left behind is often a star with a mass about the size of the earth, but with a density about as heavy as our sun. This makes these special celestial bodies very, very heavy. As one astronomer described it one time, if you put one teaspoon of white dwarf material on one end of a scale, you would have to put...you guessed it, an elephant on the other end in order to balance it out. Pretty amazing.

Don