Liked on YouTube: White Dwarf Stars And Black Dwarf Stars: The Last Stage Before Darkness!

White Dwarf Stars And Black Dwarf Stars: The Last Stage Before Darkness!
White Dwarf Stars And Black Dwarf Stars From what they are, to whether our sun will become like them one day, join me as I show you white and black dwarf stars! Subscribe for more videos:https://www.youtube.com/c/InsaneCuriosity?sub_confirmation=1? There are MANY stars in the universe, that's part of the reason why the universe is so special. There are stars of massive sizes, there are ones that are massive and yet don't shine brightly, or ones that are so small that they can't be seen outside of a certain distance. This variety makes our universe even more special as a whole. But when it comes to some of the most unique stars of the set, that would be the White and Black Dwarf Stars. So let's ask the basic question, "What are White and Black Dwarf Stars?" I'll start with the White Dwarfs first because those we know are in the universe right now. White Dwarfs are also known "degenerate dwarfs", and that's because they are a stellar core remnant that is made up of highly dense matter of an electron-degenerate variety. In short, the star is one that is very small, and yet very dense in terms of its makeup. A great way of thinking about it is that a White Dwarf can have the size of our planet, but its mass is more equivalent to that of our own sun. And if you didn't know, you could fit 1.3 MILLION of our Earths into the sun. So imagine having that much mass in something the size of the Earth. That's one of the major reasons why White Dwarfs are so special. Here's the rub though, despite having all of that mass and energy, a White Dwarf honestly doesn't shine that brightly. This is because unlike most other stars in the universe, it doesn't have any nuclear fusion going on within itself (our own sun does this for the record). Instead, the light it produces is Thermal Energy built up from the stores of it from within the core. What might surprise you though is that while there are only said to be about 8 White Dwarf stars within the hundred star systems nearest our own sun...many believe that the White Dwarf is the "final fate" of many dying stars. Specifically, "White dwarfs are thought to be the final evolutionary state of stars whose mass is not high enough to become a neutron star." If you're curious, that definition would apply to about 97% of the stars in the Milky Way Galaxy! Which means that having that many White Dwarf stars would cause some serious problems down the road, but that's something we'll get into a bit later. It should be noted though that one of the 8 White Dwarf stars we know about is only 8.6 light years away at SIrius B. Which is one of the main reasons we even known about it at all. So how does something like our own sun go from being like that to a White Dwarf? Well it's not an instant thing if that's what you're wondering. It's very much a thing of "phases." "After the hydrogen-fusing period of a main-sequence star of low or medium mass ends, such a star will expand to a red giant during which it fuses helium to carbon and oxygen in its core by the triple-alpha process. If a red giant has insufficient mass to generate the core temperatures required to fuse carbon (around 1 billion K), an inert mass of carbon and oxygen will build up at its center. After such a star sheds its outer layers and forms a planetary nebula, it will leave behind a core, which is the remnant white dwarf. So as you can see, this is something that takes billions of years to complete, and considering our sun (which is a Yellow Dwarf star if you recall) has likely a couple billion years before it goes into the Red Giant phase of its life (which will eradicate the Earth, Mars and many other things until it gets WAY closer to Jupiter), we'll be fine, and thus we won't get to see a White Dwarf in our lifetime. That's not to say that other star systems won't get to see it happening sooner, and it's possible if we find the right star that we could watch a White Dwarf being born...theoretically of course. Speaking of theoretically...let's dive into the other side of the spectrum...the Black Dwarf stars because this may not be exactly what you're thinking it is. Before we dive into that Black Star topic and such, be sure to like our video and subscribe to the channel! That way you don't miss ANY of our weekly videos! Ok, so what exactly is a Black Dwarf Star? To answer that, we actually have to go back to the White Dwarf star, don't worry though...it won't be that long though. You see, because of the fact that White Stars don't do nuclear fusion to maintain its heat and shine, and thus relies on stored Thermal Energy, that means that eventually...they're going to run out of power. In this case, they gradually cool over time. Granted, because of the density of White Dwarfs that's a long, LONG, time, but when they do, their surfaces will start to crystalize until eventually...they're a Black Dwarf star...theoretically.
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