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What Happens to Black Holes, Pulsars, Quasars, and White Dwarfs at the Ends of their Life Cycles?

-- | March 31, 2016

Question: What happens to black holes, pulsars, quasars, and white dwarfs at the end of their life cycles? — Monte

Answer: The life cycle endpoints for these objects are all very different. Black Holes are not currently known to die out. Black holes have been theorized to emit Hawking Radiation, but this is a very slow process that, to my knowledge, will not result in an end to the existence of the Black Hole. Pulsars and White Dwarfs become compact objects which slowly cool over many millions of years. Quasars result from jets of matter which emanate from massive black holes located at the centers of some galaxies. As is the case with Black Holes, the process by which Quasars evolve and potentially die is not known.

Jeff Mangum

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