25 Jan
2009
25 Jan
'09
6 p.m.
My understanding is that it has a lot to do with the extreme density, small size, and residual energy from when it was much larger. Electron degeneracy pressure is the only thing that is keeping gravity from compressing the mass further. Remember, this is a solar mass or slightly more, compressed to the size of the earth! That alone will generate very high temperatures. But again I'm no physicist so I'm sure there's a lot more to the story. An interesting tidbit I found is that the more massive the white dwarf, the smaller it is. On Sun, Jan 25, 2009 at 5:55 PM, Kim <kimharch@cut.net> wrote:
Thanks, Chuck. Why, though, the extremely high temperatures?