Phil.spacetime

The Fate of Massive Stars


The fate of massive stars (see Thorne 1994, chh. 4-9)

Massive stars begin to shrink if they run out of the "fuel" for burning. They become cooler and cooler, and smaller and smaller. In fact, astronomers found many cool and small stars called "white-dwarf". Their mean densities are astonishingly high.

Let us compare the mean densities of a white-dwarf, the sun, and the earth:


Phil.spacetime


Last modified March 28, 2003. (c) Soshichi Uchii

suchii@bun.kyoto-u.ac.jp