An overview of the Chandra mission and goals, Chandra's namesake, top 10 facts.
Classroom activities, printable materials, interactive games & more.
Overview of X-ray Astronomy and X-ray sources: black holes to galaxy clusters.
All Chandra images released to the public listed by date & by category
Current Chandra press releases, status reports, interviews & biographies.
A collection of multimedia, illustrations & animations, a glossary, FAQ & more.
A collection of illustrations, animations and video.
Chandra discoveries in an audio/video format.
Q&A: Normal Stars, White Dwarf Stars, and Star Clusters

Q:
Please educate me !! On page 3 of your web site http://chandra.harvard.edu/xray_sources/white_dwarfs3.html you refer to "degenerate" electron pressure in white dwarfs which keeps the star from collapsing in on itself. Surely there would not be any electrons left in a star after the Wolf-Rayet stage? The star having blow them off when forming a planetary nebula.

A:
The electrical forces between positively charged ions and negatively charged electrons tends to keep the average charge of matter close to zero, so if electrons flow off a star, an electric field is set up that pulls the protons off along with them. What’s left behind is also a mixture of electrons and protons, which is what a plasma is.

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