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Brown Dwarfs are a technical star because of their masses. If Red Dwarfs live for 10 trillion years, then how long could Brown Dwarfs live?

Qmechanic
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Some Hair in a room
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1 Answers1

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Brown dwarfs are not stars, because apart from a brief period of deuterium fusion in their early lives, their overall composition will remain unaltered by nuclear reactions.

There is no certain time limit to a brown dwarf's existence$^\dagger$. They will simply sit and cool; they will become more dense and their interiors will become more and more electron-degenerate. Ultimately, they will asymptotically approach resembling a cold white dwarf made mostly of hydrogen and helium and almost entirely supported by electron degeneracy pressure.

$^\dagger$ Unless protons decay.

ProfRob
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