In 2013 Hubble found signs of Earth-like planets in the atmospheres of a pair of white dwarf stars roughly 150 light-years away and only 625 million years old.

Learn about the lifecycle of stars, including the white dwarf stage with visual examples. Engage with astronomy topics using our free guide for students!

Mar 4, 2022 · How the stars evolve through their lifetime depends on their mass. The most massive stars, with eight times the mass of the sun or more, will never become white dwarfs. …

Mar 11, 2024 · The discovery that some white dwarfs cool more slowly suggests these stars may be billions of years older than estimated. This finding requires new age-calculation methods for …

Nov 21, 2019 · According to the Extrasolar Planets Encyclopedia, the B-subdwarf Kepler-70 lost its helium envelope and became a blue-white subdwarf roughly 18.4 million years ago. …

It’s been around for roughly 5 billion years, and has about 5 billion more years to go before it dies. The lifespan of the Sun, like any other star, is determined by its mass, which in turn dictates …

To set the scene, we begin by outlining the life cycle of stars in general, before moving onto consider their end-points. We next look at planetary nebulae and white dwarfs, which are the …

The remaining outer layers of the star are expelled into space, enriching the interstellar medium with heavy elements produced during the star’s life. Characteristics of White Dwarfs. White …

White dwarfs form when stars with a mass similar to the Sun reach the end of their life cycle. Once the star uses up its nuclear fuel, it expands into a red giant and then ejects its outer …

The most massive stars have relatively short main-sequence lifetimes of only a few tens of millions of years, whilst the least massive ones have main-sequence lifetimes of hundreds of …

White dwarf stars aren’t very bright, since they don’t have the nuclear energy of a younger star to light them up. But they are very dense. They are about the same size as the Earth, but are so …

Jan 30, 2025 · It was found that the white dwarf's mass is approximately 1.12 solar masses if its core is made of oxygen and neon, or 1.135 solar masses if the star has a carbon-oxygen core.

Jan 11, 2025 · White dwarf stars have attracted considerable attention in the past 15 years as hosts for potentially habitable planets, but their low luminosity and continuous cooling are …

Jan 30, 2025 · Exploding white dwarf stars are a type of supernova. Astronomers have found thousands of them so far. Astronomers have found thousands of them so far. The upcoming …