What is a White Dwarf?

A White Dwarf is a small collapsed core formed when a star runs out of fuel. It happens to the stars below the Chandrashekhar's limit which is below 4 times the mass of our sun.

You may be thinking that White Dwarfs are dull and boring and not at all interesting but according to me, they are one of the most fascinating objects of the universe. This is why:-

Ways to form a White Dwarfs-

1. When a giant star, bigger or a bit smaller than our sun runs out of hydrogen its core shrinks which makes it hot. Due to the increased temperature, the star begins to fuse helium and uses it as a fuel forming much heavier elements, as a result, it will shed its outer layers and the star will form a red giant. But as the last bit of fuel is burned the star collapses under its gravity and the core forms a white dwarf which is the size of the earth but its mass is half the mass of its constituent star. The other half will escape the gravity and it will form a nebula.
2. When a red dwarf i.e a very small star a little more mass than 13times the mass of Jupiter runs out of fuel in trillions of years it slowly and quietly forms a  white dwarf.

3. White Dwarfs of this kind is most commonly seen in the universe. When two stars are in a binary system, the larger star absorbs the atmosphere of the smaller star, as a result, the smaller star turns into a white dwarf. But the change is not permanent. Gradually the dwarf attracts the gases and forms another atmosphere in which nuclear fusion starts and causes the reborn of the star.


A White Dwarf is one of the hottest objects in the universe. it takes it billions of years to cool and form a black dwarf. Black Dwarfs are still a theory as our universe is not old enough for a black dwarf to exist. For a black dwarf to form it takes at least 20 billion years but our universe is still only 13.8 billion years old.

According to certain studies all existing White Dwarfs have almost the same size and mass.

A civilization can exist near a white dwarf because it consists of almost all the conditions required for life, for example- it has its own atmosphere and it consists of planets around it.

The death of a dwarf star is just a theory. According to it the theory the electrons of the dwarf star will escape from it causing the shrinking of the dwarf star and eventually it will disappear.