White dwarfs are a class of stars that are approximately the same size as the Earth but have roughly the same mass as our Sun. They are about a thousand times dimmer than our Sun, although their surface temperatures are about twice the Sun's. Though they are called "white," the light emitted by the stars is actually a bluish color. A white dwarf is a stage of evolution in a star's life cycle commonly known as the star's "death," because the star is cooling and will eventually stop radiating light energy. Scientists estimate that about 10% of the stars in our galaxy are white dwarfs.

One of the earliest discovered and most famous white dwarfs is Sirius B, which is the binary companion to the bright star Sirius. By observing the orbit of Sirius and using Kepler's Laws, the mass of Sirius B was determined to be...