[Space Bites] Rolls-Royce Space Reactor, Close Call in Orbit, James Webb's Back
Universe Today Podcast
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Measure the Mass of a White Dwarf Using Gravitational Lensing
Astronomers were able to measure the mass of a solitary white dwarf and they found that it was about 56% of the mass of the sun. And from all of this information, I was able to sort of confirm various theories about the evolution of white dwarfs. After a star like our sun dies, it pops out its outer layers, becomes a red giant, and then compacts down and becomes a white dwarf. It cools down eventually to the background temperature of the universe. And we see lots of white Dwarfs out there at different temperatures. And now we know what the mass is. So it's an amazing discovery.
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