Stars and Nebulae

Types of Stars

White Dwarfs

As they exhaust their nuclear fuel, Red Giant stars disperse much of their outer layer material into surrounding space as planetary nebulae. They are eventually reduced to extremely dense, spent stellar cores - White Dwarfs. Tremendous gravitational compression forces produce very high initial temperatures. They cool by radiation emission for the rest of time.

The Sun will finish its days as a White Dwarf.

Start


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Addendum: Gravitation pressure in the largest stars is strong enough to overcome the atomic forces that hold apart the densely packed atoms in the core. The cores collapse, Violent supernova explosions occur. The core remanants form neutron stars and black holes.