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White Dwarf
The dense, hot core left behind after a low- or intermediate-mass star expels its outer layers. White dwarfs are composed mostly of electron-degenerate matter and no longer undergo fusion.
Source: chandra.harvard.edu
APODs including "White Dwarf"
NGC 5189: A Strange Planetary Nebula
11/12/1995
Image Credit:
Anglo-Australian Telescope
Board
/ NASA APOD
After a Sun-like star can no longer support fusion in its core, the center condenses into a white dwarf while the outer atmospheric layers are expelled into space and appear as a planetary nebula. This particular planetary nebula has a quite strange and chaotic structure. The inner part of this nebula contains an unusual expanding ring of gas that we see nearly edge-on. The exact mechanism that expels the planetary nebula gas is a current topic of astronomical speculation and research.