Lifetime
Although compact stars may radiate, and thus cool off and lose energy, they do not depend on high temperatures to maintain their pressure. Barring external perturbation or baryon decay, they will persist virtually forever, although black holes are generally believed to finally evaporate from Hawking radiation. Eventually, given enough time (when we enter the so-called degenerate era of the universe), all stars will have evolved into dark, compact stars.
A somewhat wider class of compact objects is sometimes defined to contain, as well as compact stars, smaller solid objects such as planets, asteroids, and comets. These compact objects are the only objects in the universe that could exist at low temperatures. There is a remarkable variety of stars and other clumps of matter, but all dense matter in the universe must eventually end in one of only five classes of compact objects.
Read more about this topic: Degenerate Stars
Famous quotes containing the word lifetime:
“Natural law is only whatever happens in your lifetime within fifty miles of you.”
—“Marcy.” As quoted in The Girl I Left Behind, Introduction, by Jane O’Reilly (1980)
“Old age learns about less after a lifetime of more.”
—Mason Cooley (b. 1927)
“A lifetime of doing good is not enough; one day of doing evil is too much.”
—Chinese proverb.