What is the maximum radius of a white dwarf?
What is the maximum radius of a white dwarf?
It follows that the radius of a typical solar mass white-dwarf is about 7000km: i.e., about the same as the radius of the Earth. The first white-dwarf to be discovered (in 1862) was the companion of Sirius. Nowadays, thousands of white-dwarfs have been observed, all with properties similar to those described above.
What is a typical mass and radius for a white dwarf?
In case of the white dwarfs they are constituted essentially of degenerate electron gas[15]. The typical mass is 0.5 1 M⊙ (M⊙ represents the solar mass) and they have radii of the order of 10000 km.
What is the size of a white dwarf?
The scientists found the white dwarf was about 2,670 miles (4,300 kilometers) wide, making it a bit larger than the moon, which is about 2,158 miles (3,474 km) in diameter.
What is the radius of a 0.5 solar mass white dwarf?
1.9
A 0.5 solar-mass white dwarf has a radius 1.9 × that of Earth, a 1.0 solar-mass one is only 1.5 earth radii whilst a 1.3 solar-mass white dwarf 1.4 earth radii. A white dwarf is composed of carbon and oxygen ions mixed in with a sea of degenerate electrons.
What is the mass radius relation?
The mass-radius relation is a relationship between the radius, R, of a main-sequence star and its mass, M. If R and M are both in solar units, then R = M 0.8.
How do we tell the difference between a white dwarf supernova type Ia and a massive star type II supernova?
A type I supernova occurs in closed binary systems where two average stars orbit around each other quite closely. A type II supernova occurs in larger stars of around 10 solar masses. After it leaves the main sequence it starts fusing increasingly heavy elements in shells around the core.
How big is a white dwarf compared to the Earth?
A typical white dwarf is half as massive as the Sun, yet only slightly bigger than Earth. An Earth-sized white dwarf has a density of 1 x 10 9 kg/m 3 . Earth itself has an average density of only 5.4 x 10 3 kg/m 3. That means a white dwarf is 200,000 times as dense.
How is the mass and radius of a white dwarf determined?
The relationship between the mass and radius of white dwarfs can be derived using an energy minimization argument. The energy of the white dwarf can be approximated by taking it to be the sum of its gravitational potential energy and kinetic energy.
How did the white dwarf star get its name?
White dwarf star, any of a class of faint stars representing the endpoint of the evolution of intermediate- and low-mass stars. White dwarf stars, so called because of the white colour of the first few that were discovered, are characterized by a low luminosity, a mass on the order of that of the Sun,…
Is the sun going to become a white dwarf?
Our Sun one day will become a white dwarf star, and the chance that the random star you’ve picked will follow the same path is over 95%. White dwarfs are by far the most common final evolutionary state for a star.