Life at the end of the line.Life at the end of the line When stars like the sun exhaust their nuclear fuel, they end their lives as compact objects known as white dwarfs. Such objects are thought to fade away Verb 1. fade away - become weaker; "The sound faded out" dissolve, fade out change state, turn - undergo a transformation or a change of position or action; "We turned from Socialism to Capitalism"; "The people turned against the President when he stole the quietly as they gradually cool over billions of years. But Howard E. Bond of the Space Telescope Science Institute The Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) is the science operations center for the Hubble Space Telescope (HST; in orbit since 1990) and for the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST; scheduled to be launched in 2013). in Baltimore and his colleagues believe they have found evidence that a white dwarf may suddenly balloon back into a red-giant phase, casting off additional mass, then contract again into a white dwarf. The evidence is a glowing cloud of gas, roughly the size of our solar system solar system, the sun and the surrounding planets, natural satellites, dwarf planets, asteroids, meteoroids, and comets that are bound by its gravity. The sun is by far the most massive part of the solar system, containing almost 99.9% of the system's total mass. , surrounding a star that has clearly been a white dwarf for a long time because it also sits at the center of a much wider, fainter, older gas shell. The star apparently shed the gas quite recently, suggesting that white-dwarf stars may have some mechanism, not yet identified, by which they lose mass or reignite Verb 1. reignite - ignite anew, as of something burning; "The strong winds reignited the cooling embers" ignite, light - cause to start burning; subject to fire or great heat; "Great heat can ignite almost any dry matter"; "Light a cigarette" their nuclear engines for a brief period. |
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