Could Life Exist Around a White Dwarf?

Michele Debczak
ESO, Wikimedia Commons // CC BY 4.0
ESO, Wikimedia Commons // CC BY 4.0 / ESO, Wikimedia Commons // CC BY 4.0
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Toward the end of its existence, the universe will be a cold, dark place. But even after all the stars we can see meet a spectacular end, one source of light will remain: white dwarfs.

As this video from Kurzgesagt – In a Nutshell lays out below, white dwarfs are the leftover cores of deceased stars. They’re about the same size as Earth, but 200,000 times as dense. In theory, it’s possible for life to exist around one of these objects once all other stars have died out—but a star’s tendency to destroy all the planets that surround it before it collapses into a dwarf would make that scenario highly unlikely.

[h/t Kurzgesagt – In a Nutshell]

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