What is the estimated cooling timescale for a White Dwarf remnant after fusion ceases?
Answer
10^19 to 10^20 years
The fate of stellar remnants like the White Dwarf, which are the end products of lower or intermediate-mass stars (up to about eight solar masses), involves a prolonged period of cooling rather than active fusion. Once fusion ceases entirely, these objects, supported by electron-degenerate matter, simply radiate away their residual heat into space. This thermal dissipation process is incredibly slow, requiring timescales estimated to be in the order of $10^{19}$ to $10^{20}$ years. This post-main sequence cooling duration vastly exceeds the entire main sequence lifetime of even the shortest-lived massive stars.
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