Dwarfs: Where Does Their Energy Come From?

  • Thread starter Thread starter STAii
  • Start date Start date
  • Tags Tags
    Energy
AI Thread Summary
Dwarf stars retain high temperatures despite the cessation of nuclear fusion due to residual heat from their previous life stages and gravitational collapse. As they collapse, the particles within the dwarf collide, generating additional heat that is trapped by their high density. The cooling process is slow, allowing dwarfs to maintain their temperature for extended periods. In binary systems, they may receive additional heating from material falling onto them from a companion star or planet. Overall, the energy in dwarf stars primarily comes from their initial conditions and the dynamics of their collapse.
STAii
Messages
327
Reaction score
1
Greetings.
According to my Geology textbook (it is about astronomy, i wonder why we have this in the Geology textbook) :
(sorry if translation is not really good)
... and the star continues its life until the inner nuclear reactions stop for a reason or another, in this case the star will enter into one of the death shapes ...
... death shapes are Dwarfs, Neutronic Stars (?) and Black holes ...
... we can notice from the H-R diagram that Dwarfs have a high temprature and low illumination ...
The text may seem a little bit confusing, but let me give you the summary.
The book says that a star may become a dwarf when the nuclear reactions in it stops, and later the book says that dwarf have high temprature.
My question is: Where does the temprature of the Dwarf comes if the nuclear reactions are over ?

Thanks in advance.
 
Astronomy news on Phys.org
Greetings !

Once most of the hydrogen burns out in nuclear fusion
the dominant reactions become nuclear fission. This
heats up the star and makes it expand to giant(relativly :wink:)dimensions. Eventualy the core cools somewhat and collapses.
The violence of the explosion, if any, and what the star
eventually ends up as - BH, neutron star, white or red
dwarf depends on its enitial mass.

Live long and prosper.
 


Oh sorry... anout the dwarfs, well, nothing really
powers them - just some little random remaining nuclear
reactions and its enitial temprature as it cools.
It can not collapse into denser objects because
it's not sufficiently massive.
 
AIUI, the energy in a dwarf star is from the collapse itself, plus left-over energy from previous fussion. Though fussion is no longer taking place in the core, the dwarf is a star that used to be a giant, and has fallen in on itself. The particles of heated gasses falling in toward a central point collide with one another, and this collision generates heat. This heat is trapped by the great density of the dwarf star, and takes a very long time (even in cosmological terms) to radiate away.
 
Just to add to what LURCH said.

The dwarf, once the collapse has settled down, slowly cools by radiation. This takes a long time because the dwarf is so small.

If the dwarf has a close binary companion, or close planets, it may experience some heating at a future time, as material from its companion falls onto its surface or a planet is gobbled up.

Also, through orbital interactions or magnetic braking, some of the dwarf's rotational or magnetic energy may be converted into heat.
 
This thread is dedicated to the beauty and awesomeness of our Universe. If you feel like it, please share video clips and photos (or nice animations) of space and objects in space in this thread. Your posts, clips and photos may by all means include scientific information; that does not make it less beautiful to me (n.b. the posts must of course comply with the PF guidelines, i.e. regarding science, only mainstream science is allowed, fringe/pseudoscience is not allowed). n.b. I start this...
Asteroid, Data - 1.2% risk of an impact on December 22, 2032. The estimated diameter is 55 m and an impact would likely release an energy of 8 megatons of TNT equivalent, although these numbers have a large uncertainty - it could also be 1 or 100 megatons. Currently the object has level 3 on the Torino scale, the second-highest ever (after Apophis) and only the third object to exceed level 1. Most likely it will miss, and if it hits then most likely it'll hit an ocean and be harmless, but...
Back
Top