a note for the quantum bunny
7/8/06 01:21![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bronze_ribbonsThe next adventure in astronomy was related to the so-called white dwarf stars, highly collapsed stellar bodies the density of which is about a million times greater than the density of water. These white dwarfs represent the end of a star's evolution, when it is completely deprived of internal energy sources that keep the normal stars, like our sun, blown up and shining. They are actually stellar cadavers and are still warm only because they have not had enough time to cool. Given enough time they will lose all their heat and turn into "black dwarfs," the dark, massive bodies traveling aimlessly through the space of the universe. The first discovered white dwarf was the companion of Sirius, also known as Sirius B. While the main star (Sirius A) is 3.5 times more massive and 26 times brighter than the sun, Sirius B has almost the same mass as the sun but is 300 times fainter...George Gamow, My World Line, pp. 137-8