When they reach the end of their long evolutions, smaller stars—those up to eight times as massive as our own sun—typically become white dwarfs. These ancient stars are incredibly dense.

When the white dwarf swings closest to the red giant along its 44-year orbital period, it gravitationally siphons off hydrogen gas. This material accumulates in the accretion disk surrounding the ...

The light output of exploding white dwarf stars, which are the stellar corpses of stars with masses around that of the sun, is so uniform that astronomers can use it to measure distances.

Astronomers used a 3D global computer model to compare the climates of exoplanets in different stellar and orbital configurations. They found that a planet orbiting a white dwarf star would offer a ...