ASTRON 100 Study Guide - Midterm Guide: Gravitational Redshift, Event Horizon, Gamma-Ray Burst

• School: UMASS-Amherst
• Department: Astronomy
• Course: ASTRON 100
• Professor: Alexandra Pope

Document Summary

White dwarfs are the remaining cores of low-mass stars. Electron degeneracy pressure supports then against the crush of gravity. White dwarfs cool off and grow dimmer with time. White dwarfs with the same mass as sun are about same size as earth. The white dwarf limit small space. speed of light. Quantum mechanics says that electrons must move faster as they are squeezed into a very. As a white dwarf"s mass approaches 1. 4 msun, its electrons must move at nearly the. Because nothing can move faster than the speed of light, a white dwarf cannot be more massive than 1. 4 the white dwarf limit. A star that started with less mass gains mass from its companion. Eventually the mass-losing star will become a white dwarf . Mass falling toward a white dwarf from its close binary companion has some angular. The matter therefore obits the white dwarf