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Last Post 3/23/2012 12:58 PM by  Terry Kucera
White Dwarf State
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3/22/2012 11:17 AM
    Hi, This is Spencer again and I was wondering about the specific details of a white dwarf star state. About how hot would such a star become in this state and what would the light look like to a being on Earth? Thanks Much-Spencer
    Tags: white dwarf

    Terry Kucera



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    3/23/2012 12:58 PM

    Hi Spencer,

    I went to look that up and I found this, by the folks at the High Energy Astrophysics Research Center :

    http://imagine.gsfc.nasa....answers/970512e.html

    They say white dwarfs come in a variety of temperatures. At their hottest they can be 100,000 K (about 180,000 F)!, but then they fade so that most of those we see are more like 10,000 K (17,000F), which is still hotter than the Sun. Eventually they cool so much they fade out, but that would take a long, long time. I asked a white dwarf specialist about that once and he said he did not think the universe was old enough for there to be any black dwarfs yet.

    So I think from Earth it would look like a very bright, intense white light - much, much smaller than the Sun we see today, but quiet bright.

    Terry

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