What stellar remnant is revealed after a red giant sheds its outer layers?
Answer
White dwarf
After a main-sequence star exhausts core hydrogen and swells into a red giant, it sheds its outer layers to leave behind a hot, dense stellar cinder identified as a white dwarf.
Frequently Asked Questions
What stellar remnant is revealed after a red giant sheds its outer layers?How much would a teaspoon of white dwarf material weigh on Earth?What quantum mechanical effect supports a white dwarf against further gravitational collapse?If the progenitor star was 8 to 10 times the Sun’s mass, what elements typically compose the resulting white dwarf?What characterizes an object designated as a black dwarf?What process occurs when the core temperature of a cooling white dwarf drops low enough, turning the matter into a rigid structure?Do black dwarfs currently exist in the universe?How do astronomers use white dwarfs to estimate the age of structures like star clusters?What catastrophic event obliterates a white dwarf entirely if its mass approaches or exceeds the Chandrasekhar Limit?What process, potentially triggered in O/Ne/Mg white dwarfs nearing critical mass, can lead to the formation of a neutron star?