Black Dwarfs

 Black dwarfs are one of the most interesting objects in the universe to me. 

They are essentially a theoretical remain of a white dwarf after it cools down and stops emitting heat or light. Now pay attention to the fifth word of the previous sentence.

Theoretical.

This means that we don't have a black dwarf in existence right now. Why is that, you may ask. I am going to discuss that later.

First let me elaborate the definition. When a star which has a size similar to that of our sun loses it's fuel, it becomes a white dwarf, emitting a lot of heat and light. When this white hole cools down, it no longer emits radiation heat and light, forming black dwarfs. 

Now coming back to what I mean by that they are not in existence right now. A star takes about 10 to 100 quadrillion years to become a black dwarf! Because as i mentioned earlier, first the star has to become white dwarf and then cool to become a black dwarf. 

And our universe is only about 13.8 billion years old. Meaning it would literally take ages for the formation of a black dwarf. 

Now, why are they so interesting to me?

A black dwarf's fate is to eventually explode into a supernova, and this would take about 10^1100 to 10^3200 years!