WHITE DWARF

Pronunciation (US):

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does white dwarf mean? 

• WHITE DWARF (noun)
  The noun WHITE DWARF has 1 sense:

1. a faint star of enormous density

  Familiarity information: WHITE DWARF used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• WHITE DWARF (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A faint star of enormous density

Classified under:

Nouns denoting natural objects (not man-made)

Synonyms:

white dwarf; white dwarf star

Hypernyms ("white dwarf" is a kind of...):

star ((astronomy) a celestial body of hot gases that radiates energy derived from thermonuclear reactions in the interior)

 Context examples 

This dead, dense star remnant is called a white dwarf.

(K2 Finds Dead Star Vaporizing a Mini 'Planet', NASA)

Researchers using ESO’s Very Large Telescope have, for the first time, found evidence of a giant planet associated with a white dwarf star.

(First Giant Planet around White Dwarf Found, ESO)

The white dwarf at the center of NGC 2440 is one of the hottest known, with a surface temperature of more than 360,000 degrees Fahrenheit (200,000 degrees Celsius).

(Hubble Views a Colorful Demise of a Sun-like Star, NASA)

Two primary ideas are the accumulation of material onto a white dwarf from a companion star or the violent merger of two white dwarfs.

(Trigger for Milky Way’s Youngest Supernova Identified, NASA)

In just a few thousand years they will have dissipated, and all that will be left to see is the dimly glowing white dwarf.

(Hubble Views Final Stages of a Star’s Life, ESA/NASA)

At the heart of the Saturn Nebula lies the doomed star, visible in this image, which is in the process of becoming a white dwarf.

(The Strange Structures of the Saturn Nebula, ESO)

Researchers think the shredded star was a white dwarf - a hot, roughly Earth-sized stellar remnant marking the final state of stars like our Sun.

(Mysterious Blast Studied with NASA Telescopes, NASA)

Today, they know that the Tycho remnant was created by the explosion of a white dwarf star, making it part of the so-called Type Ia class of supernovas used to track the expansion of the Universe.

(Chandra Movie Captures Expanding Debris from a Stellar Explosion, NASA)

Today, astronomers cite GK Persei as an example of a “classical nova,” an outburst produced by a thermonuclear explosion on the surface of a white dwarf star, the dense remnant of a Sun-like star.

("Mini Supernova" Explosion Could Have Big Impact, NASA)

This is what scientists think they are seeing around WDJ0914+1914: the first evaporating planet orbiting a white dwarf.

(First Giant Planet around White Dwarf Found, ESO)