Our Sun already a White dwarf? I watch the discovery science channel a lot &amp; enjoy the material about space, stars, planets, etc.  In one episode the narrator states our Sun will one day become a white dwarf star.  The size of our Sun will double and ultimately the Earth will be inside this enlarged Sun. This the end of all life on Earth.  Then I read a recent Snapple bottle cap that stated our Sun is really white.  I read it again and chuckled: is it already a White dwarf star at this point?  I take it that the original color of the star happens to be white.  How will we know when the Sun will become a White dwarf and increase in size the engulf the Earth? Basically what is the time frame in this context.
First. In about 6 billion years the Sun will become much larger than it is now, maybe a factor of 20. It will be a red giant. Then a little while later it will get really big, as large as the earth's orbit and perhaps the Earth will be engulfed.

Second. Only after this does the Sun lose about half of its mass and the remainder is exposed as a small, hot, white dwarf star, about the same size as the Earth but half the mass of the Sun. It will have a density about 1 million times that of water and it is held up by a pressure that only arises because of the quantum mechanical nature of the electrons within it.

The Sun is not currently a white dwarf. It is a G-type dwarf star, supported by "normal" gas pressure and will remain reasonably stable, though will become about 50% more luminous over the next 5 billion years or so.