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X-Ray emission in blue, radio emission in pink. Radiation was emitted 90 billion miles over 13 years.

Photo taken at Chandra X-Ray Observatory

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White dwarf stars are often found in binary systems, meaning the star revolves around another star. Among the more common pairings are with red giants or super massive stars. Even though the white dwarf star is only the size of Earth, its gravitational pull is so strong that it pulls matter from the companion star around it into an accretion disk. Eventually, the white dwarf star cannot contain any more mass and will explode in what is known as a nova.

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Theoretically, a white dwarf star will eventually burn out and become a giant charred rock known as a black dwarf star. There are two reasons that these are only theoretical:

1) The universe is not old enough. A white dwarf star should hold fusion for multiple tens of billions of years. Since the universe is only 13.8 billion years old this cannot have happened yet.

2) A black dwarf star would emit such low amounts of radiation that they would virtually be undetectable.

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This image was captured by a telescope in 1987. The core of a once red giant remains at the center and will eventually be all that's left.

Photo taken at: Kitt Peak National Observatory

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A red giant goes nova after its core no longer has a gravitational effect on its outermost layer. This explosion results in a planetary nebula, which leaves behind the once core of the red giant. Gases are pushed away out into the farthest reaches of the solar system and leaves behind what we call a white dwarf star. These are roughly the size of Earth!

White dwarf stars also undergo fusion reactions, however they fuse heavier elements like carbon into oxygen. This process continues for tens of billions of years. No one actually knows what will happen to a white dwarf star after fusion ends. This is because the universe isn't old enough to have this happen yet! The leading theory is that they will become a cold, charred remnant star, known as a black dwarf star. A black dwarf star still contains all of its mass but does not undergo any more fusion.