white dwarf
noun
plural white dwarfs
: a small hot whitish star of low intrinsic brightness usually with a mass approximately equal to that of the sun but with a density many times larger
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For so many elements to still be visible implies that their accretion onto the white dwarf must have happened relatively recently — within the past 35,000 years.
—
Keith Cooper, Space.com, 24 Oct. 2025
It wasn’t discovered with the Hubble space telescope, but in all the years since, the Hubble space telescope has been our best tool to identify and measure these white dwarfs that explode as type Ia supernova, enabling us to draw these fascinating conclusions.
—Big Think, 17 Oct. 2025
Another potential cause is a white dwarf — a dead star as heavy as our sun but condensed to the size of Earth — being ripped apart by a rare intermediate-mass black hole.
—Ashley Strickland, CNN Money, 22 Sep. 2025
But can life even exist on a planet orbiting a white dwarf?
—Juliette Becker, The Conversation, 28 Aug. 2025
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Keith Cooper, Space.com, 24 Oct. 2025
It wasn’t discovered with the Hubble space telescope, but in all the years since, the Hubble space telescope has been our best tool to identify and measure these white dwarfs that explode as type Ia supernova, enabling us to draw these fascinating conclusions.
—Big Think, 17 Oct. 2025
Another potential cause is a white dwarf — a dead star as heavy as our sun but condensed to the size of Earth — being ripped apart by a rare intermediate-mass black hole.
—Ashley Strickland, CNN Money, 22 Sep. 2025
But can life even exist on a planet orbiting a white dwarf?
—Juliette Becker, The Conversation, 28 Aug. 2025
See All Example Sentences for white dwarf
Cite this Entry
“White dwarf.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/white%20dwarf. Accessed 3 Nov. 2025.
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