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White dwarves
For stars up to about 8 solar masses
(the mass of our sun), the star will collapse until an electron
degeneracy pressure takes over. Recall that electrons obey the
Pauli exclusion principle, which states that no two electrons
can occupy the same state. It is this force which will prevent
further collapse, and the star becomes a white dwarf, eventually
a mass of Carbon about the size of the Earth.
modtech@theory.uwinnipeg.ca
1999-09-29