White Dwarf Stars - Essay Example

Mainly, white dwarfs’ string stretches through K-dwarf temperature region to approximately 4,000K (Kaler 182). Studies so far conducted refer these kind of stars as end state of evolved main sequence bodies having M less than 9M (Aerts & Christensen-Dalsgaard 111). However, their exact number is not well document due to numerous inaccuracies similar to the study of coolest main sequence dwarfs as well as brown dwarfs (Aerts & Christensen-Dalsgaard 111). Hence, prompting them to be more intriguing to study despite their varied aspects document by certain astronomical scholars including exact location in HRD diagram, which this study intends to highlight.

Figure 1: Hertzsprung-Russel-Diagramm (HRD): White Dwarf location. 2010. Web. 16Th March 2014. Studies so far conducted contend temperatures for these stars in most cases usually range between 4,000K and 85,000K (Koupelis 408). However, these temperatures may be even higher under certain circumstances based on the extent of evolution or exhaustion of individual bodies comprising a given stream of galaxy (Koupelis 408). This implies exact measurements of their respective hotness are quite hard to ascertain and declare stars at certain region their exact temperature.

Therefore, scientists end up giving temperatures with certain in term of ranges. Another intriguing aspect encompasses their respective masses whereby based on research they normally range between 0.02 and 1.4 solar masses (Koupelis 408). This is because a typical white dwarf is almost close to the size of planet earth (Koupelis 408). Hence, densities of these stars are quite high whereby approximately 106 cm3 grams. This implies a teaspoonful whose measure is about 5 cm3 would