White Dwarfs and Planetary Nebulae
Our sun will become a white dwarf with a mass of about half its original mass and a size of about...
1/100 its original diameter
The surface temperature of a newly formed white dwarf can be about...
100,000 K
Because they are incredibly dense objects, 1 cubic centimeter of a white dwarf mass (about the size of a six-sided die) is about...
a million grams (one metric ton)
Planetary nebula typically glow for...
about 1000 years
White Dwarfs emit ultraviolet and even x-ray radiation...
but have low luminosities because they do not produce a lot of light
This force is what prevents a white dwarf from collapsing any further under the influence of gravity.
electron degeneracy pressure
What is the number of white dwarfs that have been found in our galaxy?
over 10,000
Much of the red color in planetary nebulae comes from hydrogen. The green color in nebulae was originally thought to come from an unknown element, named Nebullium, but in the end it turns out it comes from ordinary...
oxygen (O)
The gases expelled by a low mass star in its red giant phase don't get very far (about 1 light year or so) by the time the star collapses to form a white dwarf. When the radiation excites the gases, they glow and we call them a...
planetary nebula
One possible explanation for the weird, beautiful and fantastic shapes of planetary nebulae is that they...
swallowed some their planets which then stirred the interiors of the stars
