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Stars - Life Cycle - White Dwarf - Black Dwarf.
A
small star like the Sun will eventually change from being a red giant.
The star loses some of its
gas into space
and the core contracts, gets brighter again
and becomes a white dwarf.
The
white dwarf, as the name suggests, is
very small (for a star).
The mass has contracted so much
that it has become very dense,
perhaps one million times as
dense as anything you would find on
Earth.
A
white dwarf does not have nuclear reactions but can be very hot.
In time the star loses energy, "goes
out" and becomes a black
dwarf.
A black dwarf can no longer be seen as it is not emitting any
light.
It may become part of what is called "dark matter".
It is not known how much dark
matter there is in the universe.
Some astronomers believe that a
very large amount of dark matter
may exist.
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Copyright © 2008 Dr. Colin France. All Rights Reserved.