- #1
Jamison Lahman
- 143
- 35
Simple enough question, are white dwarfs stars?
I know white dwarfs are the remnants of former stars, but is it correct to classify them as a current star? My understanding was that nuclear fusion was a deciding factor into whether or not an object was a 'star' and white dwarfs were void of any fusion. Wikipedia, however, has an article defining White Dwarfs as 'compact stars;' https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compact_star. Additionally, when a white dwarf is in a binary system, they are often referred to as binary star systems.
I know white dwarfs are the remnants of former stars, but is it correct to classify them as a current star? My understanding was that nuclear fusion was a deciding factor into whether or not an object was a 'star' and white dwarfs were void of any fusion. Wikipedia, however, has an article defining White Dwarfs as 'compact stars;' https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compact_star. Additionally, when a white dwarf is in a binary system, they are often referred to as binary star systems.