Constraints on the gravitational constant from the observations of white dwarfs

Recently some authors have questioned whether Newton's law of gravitation is actually true on scales less than 1 km. The available constraints on the gravitational constant show that is laboratory valueG ₀ may differ from the value at infinityG by 40%. Long (1976) reported experimental evidence for departures from Newton's law. In this note it is shown that the difference betweenG ₀ andG modifies the mass-radius relation of degenerate stars. The observations of white dwarfs are consistent with the theory of stellar evolution only ifG ₀ differs fromG by not more than 10%. This estimate may be improved by a higher accuracy of observations.