> I have a question on the red dwarfs' end. Is true that
end in white dwarfs?
> And will be white dwarfs of degenerate matter? I find strange
that a star with
> 8% or 60% of the sun mass had mass to generate a core of
degenerate matter?
> And in the case of brown dwarfs'? Do they end in something?
Our theories of stellar structure do predict that red dwarfs will eventually end their lives as white dwarfs, composed of degenerate matter. On the other hand, the lifetime of a red dwarf is much longer than the current age of the universe, so none of them have died yet. Similarly with brown dwarfs; they too collapse until they become degenerate.
You really don't need that much mass to produce degeneracy. The only requirement is that no nuclear reactions are taking place and the gas pressure is higher than any chemical process can sustain. Thus the gas then collapses until degeneracy sustains it. Jupiter, for instance, is supported predominantly by degeneracy pressure, as is Saturn. In fact, any gravitationally bound, inert object of about a Jupiter mass or more will eventually have to become degenerate.
Answers provided by HSU Astronomy Professor David Kornreich.