Dwarf star

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search

The term dwarf star refers to a variety of distinct classes of stars.

  • Dwarf star alone generally refers to any main-sequence star, a star of luminosity class V.
    • Red dwarfs are low-mass main-sequence stars.
    • Yellow dwarfs are main-sequence (dwarf) stars with masses comparable to that of the Sun. The Sun is a yellow dwarf.
  • A blue dwarf is a low-mass star which is hypothesized to be the post-main-sequence form of a red dwarf.
  • A white dwarf is a star composed of electron-degenerate matter, thought to be the final stage in the evolution of stars not massive enough to undergo a Type II supernova—stars less massive than roughly 9 solar masses.
    • A black dwarf refers to a white dwarf that has cooled sufficiently such that it no longer emits any visible light.
  • A brown dwarf is a sub-stellar object not massive enough to ever fuse hydrogen into helium, but still massive enough to fuse deuterium—less than about 0.08 solar masses and more than about 13 Jupiter masses.

[edit] See also

Personal tools
Namespaces
Variants
Actions
Navigation
Interaction
Toolbox
Print/export
Languages