The last stage in the life of a star is to become a black dwarf. Since they don’t emit light or heat, detecting these objects (if they actually exist) is a challenge. However, the universe is only 14 billion years old, still too young for this type of object to form.
FINAL STAGE OF A STAR
A main sequence star, if it lacks the mass it needs to explode into a supernova, becomes a white dwarf – a star that “dies” due to a lack of hydrogen and helium. The white dwarf, however, remains hot for quite some time, much like an oven still heats up even when the power is disconnected.
Photo: The evolution of stars. internet source
After a while, any remaining heat will dissipate. At this point, when they no longer emit light or heat, the white dwarfs will become black dwarfs. If these types of dwarfs really existed, they would be extremely difficult to detect because they emit very, very weak radiation. However, they can still be detected by gravitational interaction.
However, we don’t need to start looking for these black dwarfs just yet. For the moment, they still exist only in theory.
WHEN WHEN WHEN WILL BLACK PEATLANDS APPEAR?
The evolution of stars in the distant future depends on many physics problems that we do not understand today, such as the nature of dark matter or the decay of protons. Thus, the time it takes for a white dwarf to become a black dwarf has not been agreed upon. According to calculations by astronomer Ethan Siegel, a white dwarf needs at least hundred million billion years cool down and become a black dwarf.
This image shows white dwarfs that are 12 to 13 billion years old, roughly the same age as the universe. Photo: NASA
Even if a white dwarf were to form at the time of the Big Bang (which of course is impossible since stars all go through stages of evolution, usually taking at least 1 billion years), then that star is still a dwarf white because it has not cooled enough to turn into a black dwarf.
Brown dwarfs, objects too small to allow nuclear fusion, were also called black dwarfs. We must also be careful not to confuse this type of dwarf with a black hole or a neutron star. Both types of celestial bodies have been discovered.
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