Astronomers Observe White Dwarf Creating Colourful Shockwave While Moving Through Space

Astronomers observe a white dwarf creating a colorful shockwave while moving through space. The report details what a white dwarf is and lists its key characteristics relevant to stellar evolution and astronomical measurement.

White Dwarf: 

Dimension	Key Details
Definition	Provides for being the stellar core left behind after a dying star exhausts its nuclear fuel and expels its outer layers to form a planetary nebula.
Stellar fate	Applies to stars like the Sun becoming white dwarfs after exhausting their nuclear fuel.
Nuclear fusion status	Stellar core that no longer supports nuclear fusion reactions that generate energy, but remains extremely hot.
Typical size and mass	Half as massive as the Sun, yet only slightly bigger than Earth.
Density comparison	One of the densest collections of matter, surpassed only by neutron stars.
Composition	Helium, carbon, and oxygen nuclei in a sea of highly energetic electrons.
Support mechanism	Supported against their own gravitation by the degeneracy pressure of the electron gas in their interior (not by normal gas pressure).
Degeneracy pressure	Increased resistance exerted by electrons composing the gas, as a result of stellar contraction.
Cooling	Unless accreting matter from a nearby star, a white dwarf cools down over the next billion years or so.
End state	White dwarfs would ultimately form ‘black dwarfs’; the Universe is likely not old enough for any black dwarfs to exist yet.
Astronomical use	Luminosity of white dwarfs being used by astronomers to measure how long-ago star formation began in a particular region.