What a Black Dwarf Really Is… And Why None Exist Yet

Hey guys! We’re now live on Spotify 🎧 Listen here: https://open.spotify.com/show/10Hdv6g... What if there's a type of dead star that science can fully describe - but that doesn't exist yet? Not because the physics is wrong, but because the universe is too young to have made one. It's called a black dwarf: the final fate of a white dwarf after it has cooled so completely that it no longer emits any light or heat. The problem? That cooling process takes quadrillions of years. The universe is only 13.8 billion years old. Not a single black dwarf exists anywhere in the observable universe. Not one. In this video, we explore what a black dwarf actually is in physical terms, how white dwarfs cool over incomprehensible timescales, why crystallization and atmospheric insulation slow that cooling even further, how black dwarfs differ from black holes and brown dwarfs, what the coldest white dwarfs ever observed tell us, and what role black dwarfs play in the far future of the cosmos - including the extraordinary possibility that they may one day produce the last supernovae the universe will ever see. This is the story of an object the universe has promised but hasn't delivered. A name for something that doesn't exist yet. The longest wait in all of physics. Sources: Tremblay, P.-E. et al. (2019). "Core crystallization and pile-up in the cooling sequence of evolving white dwarfs." Nature, 565(7738), 202–205. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-018-07... Caplan, M.E. (2020). "Black Dwarf Supernova in the Far Future." Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 497(4), 4357–4362. https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/staa2262 Fontaine, G., Brassard, P. & Bergeron, P. (2001). "The Potential of White Dwarf Cosmochronology." Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, 113(782), 409–435. https://doi.org/10.1086/319535 Kaplan, D.L. et al. (2014). "A 1.05 M☉ Companion to PSR J2222−0137: The Coolest Known White Dwarf?" The Astrophysical Journal, 789(2), 119. https://doi.org/10.1088/0004-637X/789... #blackdwarf #whitedwarf #stellarevolution #astrophysics #cosmology #futureoftheuniverse #deepspace