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white dwarf

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

English

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Etymology

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Coined by Dutch astronomer Willem Luyten in 1922.[1]

Pronunciation

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Noun

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English Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia

white dwarf (plural white dwarfs or (rare) white dwarves)

  2. (astronomy) The dim, highly dense core remnant that is the final stage in the evolution of a star of low or medium mass, after nuclear reactions have ceased.
    • 2024 August 21, Ashley Strickland, “An unusual object is moving so fast it could escape the Milky Way. Scientists aren’t certain what it is”, in CNN‎[2], archived from the original on 24 September 2024:
      In these stellar pairings, if the two stars are close together, the white dwarf will siphon mass away from its companion and have an outburst called a nova. And when the white dwarf accumulates too much mass, it will collapse and explode in a supernova. […] When white dwarfs explode, they create heavy elements that could exist around J1249+36.

Synonyms

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  • WD (abbreviation)

Translations

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See also

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References

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  1. ^ J. B. Holberg (December 2005), “How Degenerate Stars Came to be Known as White Dwarfs”, in Bull. Am. Astron. Soc.‎[1], volume 37, page 1503
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