black-dwarfs

The Sun has about 5 billion years left. The last stars in the universe will burn for 10 trillion. After they go out, the cosmos enters an era so dark and cold that physics itself may eventually dissolve the matter we're made of.

When the Sun dies, it will leave behind a white dwarf — a city-sized object containing half the Sun's mass, supported not by nuclear fusion but by quantum mechanics. White dwarfs are already the most common stellar remnants in the galaxy, and every star you see in the night sky under 8 solar masses will eventually become one. Some will detonate as the universe's most reliable distance markers. Others will crystallize into diamond-like spheres and cool for trillions of years.