/sci/ - Science & Math

In the far flung future of the degenerate era, will the Iron stars have helium seas?

>>10540332

Incredibly slowly (If the proton doesn't decay), even compared to black holes timelines, particles slowly transmutate into iron and releasing a little energy when they do this via quantum tunnelling. Iron is the last stopover point for matter. Heavier metals eventually decays into it and lighter matter fuses up into it.

And we are not done yet. Once this white dwarf turned black dwarf slowly becomes an iron star, it still will not have reached its lowest energy level. That iron star will eventually collapse into a neutron star, at an estimated timeline of 10^10^76 years, coincidentally almost the same as the 10^10^77 possible unique states for the universe, or total alternate Universes. Alternatively, Iron Stars might turn into black holes even sooner, a "mere" 10^10^26 years.