Why do some stars end as white dwarfs instead of exploding?
Quick Answer
Stars with initial masses up to about 8 times the Sun’s mass shed their outer layers and leave behind a dense core called a white dwarf. They are not massive enough for the core to collapse into a neutron star.
The Full Story
A star like the Sun spends most of its life fusing hydrogen into helium, then later expands into a red giant. When the fuel is exhausted, its outer layers drift away as a planetary nebula, and the hot core is left behind as a white dwarf. This remnant is supported by electron degeneracy pressure, which prevents further collapse. White dwarfs are extremely dense, roughly Earth-sized, and they slowly cool for billions of years. The first white dwarf was identified in the 19th century in the Sirius system, where Sirius B was studied in detail.
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