Our sun will first become a red giant star when it leaves the Main Sequence, as

Question

Our sun will first become a red giant star when it leaves the Main Sequence, as it goes from core Hydrogen burning to shell Hydrogen burning. After it has exhausted all of the fusion reactions possible, perhaps some Helium fusion in there as well, it will leave a corpse called a White Dwarf, where there is a crystalline core of carbon and mixed ash products, surrounded by a degenerate electron gas. Demonstrate how to calculate the new volume of the sun, given that you know the Sun’s mass and radius (ok, look it up), and that you know that it will have a final density of = 10^9 kg/m^3

Explanation / Answer

The mass of the white dwarf is usually comparable to that of sun.

M = 1.989 * 1030 kg

= 109 kgm-3

V = M/ = 1.989 * 1021 m3

V = 1.989 * 1012 km3

Volume of a white dwarf is comparable to the volume of the earth. So this value of V is in close agreement with the astronomical concepts.

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