How do white dwarfs reveal the universe's expansion history?

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physicshelp1
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Hello,

I really need help answering this question.

I know when low mass stars die, they become white dwarfs (if their mass is less than 1.4M).

But I don't know why the end points in the life of low mass stars help astromomers to understand the expansion history of the universe.

How do they show anything about the universe expanding?

Please help!

Thanks
 
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Astronomers were recently using the oldest white dwarf stars to give another test of the age of the universe. Stars are believed to have first formed 1 billion years after the big bang according to evidence from Hubble. If the age of these old stars can be confirmed with some degree of accuracy then they can confirm the age predictions based on the expansion of the universe or throw the theory into doubt. There is a NASA article about this located here:

http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/archive/releases/star/white-dwarf/2002/10/text/

I hope that was something like what you were thinking about.