Astronomy for ALL

A white dwarf is a compact star. Their matter is squashed together. Gravitation has pulled the atoms close together, and stripped off their electrons. The mass of a white dwarf's mass is similar to that of the Sun, but its volume is similar to that of the Earth.

White dwarfs are the final evolutionary state of all stars whose mass is not high enough to become a neutron star. Over 97% of the stars in the Milky Way will become white dwarf stars.