Description: "Stellar remnants" is the collective term for white dwarfs, neutron stars, and stellar-mass black holes. These represent the final stage of stellar evolution after a star has both finished hydrogen burning on the main sequence and evolved through the giant phase. Stellar remnants are very compact compared to stars. White dwarfs (the largest type of stellar remnant) have approximately a solar mass of material in an object the size of Earth. Stellar remnants do not generate heat from nuclear fusion in their cores. In close binary systems stellar remnants can be the source of novae, Type Ia supernovae, or (if two stellar remnants spiral towards each other and collide) bursts of gravitational waves.

Related Terms:

• Binary Star
• Black Hole
• Giant Star
• Hydrogen Fusion
• Main Sequence
• Neutron Star
• Nova
• Nuclear Fusion
• Solar Mass
• Star
• Stellar Evolution
• Supernova
• White Dwarf
• Gravitational Waves
• Standard Candle

Term and definition status: This term and its definition have been approved by a research astronomer and a teacher

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