White Dwarfs Might Be Less Dead Than We Thought

The standard theory says that white dwarfs are the dead cores of main sequence stars. They're out of fuel and cooling off to the background temperature of the Universe. But now observations show that white dwarfs are surprisingly warm, even though they "died" billions of years ago. This could be from an internal process that causes crystals to form and float upward, pushing heavier liquid downward toward the star's center and releasing gravitational energy. The post White Dwarfs Might Be Less De...