March 19, 2009
The Sun as a White Dwarf Star
Written by Ian O’Neill
What will happen to all the inner planets, dwarf planets, gas giants and asteroids in the Solar System when the Sun turns into a white dwarf?
This question is currently being pondered by a NASA researcher who is building a model of how our Solar System might evolve as our Sun loses mass, violently turning into an electron-degenerate star.
It turns out that Dr. John Debes work has some very interesting implications. As we use more precise techniques to observe existing white dwarf stars with the dusty remains of the rocky bodies that used to orbit them, the results of Debes’ model could be used as a comparison to see if any existing white dwarf stars resemble how our Sun might look in 4-5 billion years time…
Today, our Sun is a healthy yellow dwarf star. If you want to be precise, it is a “G V starâ€. This yellow dwarf will happily burn 600 million tonnes of hydrogen per second in its core for 10 billion years, generating the light that is required to make our planet habitable.
The Sun is approximately half-way through this hydrogen burning phase, so it’s OK, things aren’t going to change (for the Sun at least) for a long time yet.
But what happens then? What happens in 4-5 billion years when the supply of hydrogen runs out in the core?
Full article (and some nice artwork and diagrams) here:
http://www.universetoday.com/2009/03/19/the-sun-as-a-white-dwarf-star/
The Sun as a White Dwarf Star