black dwarf

Scientific  

1. The theoretical celestial object that remains after a white dwarf has used up all of its fuel and cooled off completely to a solid mass of extremely dense, cold carbon. A white dwarf will eventually become a black dwarf unless it has a companion star from which it can take sufficient mass to pass the Chandrasekhar limit and collapse into a neutron star or black hole. No black dwarf has ever been observed. Because the estimated cooling time for a white dwarf is in the trillions of years, it is unlikely that there are many, if any, black dwarfs in our universe, which is only 12 to 18 billion years old.

2. See Note at dwarf star

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Example Sentences

Earth's sun will eventually end its life as a white, then black, dwarf.

From Salon

However, astrophysicists calculate that this type of star, known as a black dwarf, would take so long to cool that there are not yet any black dwarf stars anywhere in the entire universe.

From Salon

The show prominently features female characters, including the franchise’s first Black dwarf princess.

From Los Angeles Times

One is a nice guy driven to the end of his tether by his wife’s insistence on cheating on him with a black dwarf, the other is essentially Clint Eastwood.

From The Guardian

White dwarfs generate no energy of their own, but have enough leftover heat that they continue to radiate for trillions of year before cooling to a black dwarf — though the process of cooling takes so long that it is not believed that there are any black dwarfs in the universe currently.

From Salon