The Unexpected Stability of the Sun and the Unexpected Instability of White Dwarfs

• Friedrich Herrmann ^[1]
  1. [1] Karlsruhe Institute of Technology

     Karlsruhe Institute of Technology

     Stadtkreis Karlsruhe, Alemania

     
• Localización: The Physics Teacher, ISSN 0031-921X, Vol. 62, Nº. 9, 2024, págs. 776-778
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • The Sun does not explode like a hydrogen bomb, as one might expect. When a white dwarf accretes matter, it is shrinking, not getting bigger, as one might expect. I show that both effects are due to Newton’s law of gravitation. I discuss the behavior of two different types of celestial bodies: the Sun (and other Sun-like stars) and white dwarfs.