ASTR 114 Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: White Dwarf, Degenerate Matter, Bright Giant

• School: Binghamton University
• Department: Astronomy
• Course: ASTR 114
• Professor: Christopher A.Taylor

Document Summary

Also indicated is the white dwarf region; these stars are hot but not very luminous, as they are quite small. I - supergiant ii - bright giant iii - giant iv - subgiant v - main sequence vi - sub dwarfs vii . Mass increases going from bottom right to top left//size increases going from bottom left to top right. White dwarfs are the remaining cores of dead stars// electron degeneracy pressure supports them against the crush of gravity. White dwarfs cool off and grow dimmer with time. /white dwarfs with same mass as sun are about same size as earth. /higher-mass white dwarfs are smaller. A white dwarf that is part of a semidetached binary system can undergo repeated novas. Nova - the temperature of accreted matter eventually becomes hot enough for hydrogen fusion. Massive star supernova: iron core of a massive star reaches white dwarf limit and collapses into a neutron star, causing total explosion.