How many times smaller than a star is a white dwarf?

Answer 1

A White dwarf star is typically around the size of an earth like planet, but with an approximate mass similar to our suns mass. It is therefore very dense, as all of that mass is packed into a very small volume.

Answer 2

A white dwarf is typically about 100 times smaller in diameter compared to a main sequence star of similar mass. This is because white dwarfs are very dense, with mass comparable to a star but packed into a much smaller volume.

Answer 3

Stars come in all sorts of sizes; there is also some variation in the size of a white dwarf. To get a general idea, a white dwarf has about 1/100 the diameter of our Sun. That's a million times less volume, 10,000 times less surface area.

Answer 4

The radius of a typical - if a typical one exists - is between 0.008 and 0.02 times the radius of the Sun.

The radius of the Sun is 6.955×105 km so a "typical white dwarf would be between 5,564 and 13,910km - the Earth has a radius of about 6,371.0 km

Answer 5

Billions of billions of years.

White dwarfs take so long to cool sufficiently to become a black dwarf [See related link] that none have been detected so far, because the age of the universe is not old enough.

Answer 6

A white dwarf by definition is the remains of a star. It is the "embers" of the fire. [See related question]

A white dwarf will continue to radiate heat until it has cooled to such a point that no more light is emitted. When this happens, it is called a black dwarf.

Because of the time required for this to happen, no black dwarfs are believed to exist, as it will take longer than the age of the Universe to cool down.

Answer 7

White dwarfs are the remains of medium sized stars that have ended their life.

The oldest known white dwarf G29-38 which is a young white dwarf is aged at about 500 million years old. Scientists,, estimate that a life cycle of a white dwarf (before it turns into a black dwarf) is 10200 years. It is for those reasons, no black dwarfs are expected to exist yet.

Answer 8

Most white dwarf stars are composed of Oxygen and Carbon nuclei that have been stripped of their electrons and which are compressed by gravity into a gas that behaves more like a solid. Because of physically limiting factors that cause them to explode at larger sizes, they range from roughly 60% of the mass of our sun to approximately 1.4 solar masses.

Answer 9

It's not "the" white dwarf star, it is a stage of a stars life, the last stage preferabaly. There is not an acual age of a white dwarf star. It depends on their color while living on the main sequence. The main sequence is simpily the color, temperature and absolute magnitude. (brightness) Creating an inverse relationship on the H-R diagram. If this is too confusing, then let me sum it up for you. There is no age of a white dwarf star. It depends on the color. "ROYGBV" From Coolest to Hottest, the colors are...Red being the coolest, Orange, Yellow, White, Blue-White, and Blue being the Hottest. Cool stars live longer because they use up their fusion slower. Hot stars would have a short life span because they use up their fusion faster, which causes them to run out and become a Red Giant or a Super Red Giant, depending on their mass. After they live off the extra fusion they become a white dwarf, which does live in our galexy for millions and billions of years, and eventually dies. Unless it is a very high mass star. If it is, then it will explode and cause a Supernova, and form a black hole that has very strong gravity, that can pull in anything that comes past the boundries. The supernova can also form a Neutron star, which is formed from Low mass after the supernova has occured.

Answer 10

The average white dwarf is comparatively small - only a bit bigger than the Earth itself.