- Chandrasekhar Limit
Around 1930, S. Chandrasekhar studied astrophysical models of white dwarf stars and came to the conclusion that no white dwarf can be more massive than about 1.4 solar masses.
http://scienceworld.wolfram.com/physics/ChandrasekharLimit.html
(Added: Sat Oct 26 2002)
- Sirius A and B
An X-ray image of the Sirius star system located 8.6 light years from Earth. This image shows two sources and a spike-like pattern due to the support structure for the transmission grating. The bright source is Sirius B, a white dwarf star that has a surface temperature of about 25,000 degrees Celsius which produces very low energy X-rays.
http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/cycle1/0065/
(Added: Sat Oct 26 2002)
- What is a White Dwarf star?
Unlike most other stars that are supported against their own gravitation by normal gas pressure, white dwarf stars are supported by the degeneracy pressure of the electron gas in their interior.
http://www.sciencenet.org.uk/database/Physics/Stars/p01158c.html
(Added: Wed Oct 30 2002)
- White Dwarf
A white dwarf is what stars like our Sun become when they have exhausted their nuclear fuel. Near the end of its nuclear burning stage, such a star expels most of its outer material (creating a planetary nebula), until only the hot core remains, which then settles down to become a very hot (T> 100,000K) young white dwarf.
http://imagine.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/science/know_l2/dwarfs.html
(Added: Sat Oct 26 2002)
- White Dwarfs and Electron Degeneracy
When the triple-alpha process in a red giant star is complete, those evolving from stars less than 4 solar masses do not have enough energy to ignite the carbon fusion process. They collapse, moving down and to the left of the main sequence until their collapse is halted by the pressure arising from electron degeneracy.
http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/astro/whdwar.html
(Added: Sat Oct 26 2002)
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