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White dwarfs and neutron stars
Stars live their lives for millions or billions of years but will eventually die. Low mass stars (like the Sun) will end their lives producing so-called planetary nebulae, and leave behind a collapsed core known as a white dwarf. More massive stars will end their lives by exploding and producing a so-called supernova remnant, and leave a neutron star (or possibly a black hole) behind. In this free course, White dwarfs and neutron stars, you will learn about how stars die, and about the structure and composition of white dwarfs and neutron stars. Throughout, you will use mathematics to calculate their properties and behaviour.
This OpenLearn course is an adapted extract from the Open University course S384 Astrophysics of stars and exoplanets.
This content forms part of the Dangoor Education collection, the educational arm of The Exilarch's Foundation.
Course learning outcomes
After studying this course, you should be able to:
- appreciate how stars end their lives
- understand how planetary nebulae and supernova remnants form
- calculate the physical properties of white dwarfs and neutron stars
- understand the properties of electron-degenerate and neutron-degenerate matter
- calculate the energetics of supernovae explosions.
First Published: 07/01/2025
Updated: 07/01/2025
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Having just completed S284 (Astronomy) where these subjects were introduced, it was enlightening to see the underlying physics explained mathematically as well as being invited to manipulate the various concepts through a series of worked examples and test questions.
Like its sister OpenLearn course on “The Formation of Exoplanets”, this free course took me considerably longer than the allotted 6 hours, though I did find it a little more accessible than the former, probably due to a greater overlap of the core content with the S284 curriculum - and the fact that there was less (zero in fact) calculus involved!
If your mathematics is already strong or you are able to ‘beef up’ your algebra (as I had to do), it feels like this course could be a valuable staging post in acquiring a deeper knowledge of astronomy.