How extreme is the density of a white dwarf packing solar mass into an Earth-sized volume?
Answer
A teaspoon of its material would weigh over a ton
The density difference between a main-sequence star and its white dwarf remnant is staggering, even when the mass remains similar (e.g., $1 M_{\odot}$). When a star collapses to the radius of Earth, the resulting density is immense, supported by electron degeneracy pressure rather than thermal pressure from fusion. This extreme compression leads to densities so high that a minuscule sample, such as a single teaspoon of the white dwarf's material, would exert a weight exceeding one ton upon measurement.
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