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Juliette Becker, Assistant Professor of Astronomy, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Earth-size stars and alien oceans – an astronomer explains the case for life around white dwarfs

White dwarf stars, like this one shown shrouded by a planetary nebula, are much smaller than stars like our Sun. NASA/R. Ciardullo (PSU)/H. Bond (STScI)

The Sun will someday die. This will happen when it runs out of hydrogen fuel in its core and can no longer produce energy through nuclear fusion as it does now. The death of the Sun is often thought of as the end of the solar system. But in reality, it may be the beginning of a new phase of life for all the objects living in the solar system.

When stars like the Sun die, they go through a phase of rapid expansion called the Red Giant phase: The radius of the star gets bigger, and its color gets redder. Once the gravity on the star’s surface is no longer strong enough for it to hold on to its outer layers, a large fraction – up to about half – of its mass escapes into space, leaving behind a remnant called a white dwarf.

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