Frozen star (hypothetical star)

In astronomy, a Frozen star, besides a disused term for a black hole, is a hypothetical type of star that, according to the astronomers Fred Adams and Gregory P. Laughlin, may appear in the future of the Universe when the metallicity of the interstellar medium is several times the solar value.

Characteristics

Due to opacity effects, as metallicity of the interstellar gas increases both the maximum and minimum masses a star can have will decrease. For the latter case, it's expected that an object with a mass of 0.04 solar masses (40 times the mass of Jupiter), that currently would become a brown dwarf unable to fuse hydrogen, could do so ending in the main sequence with a surface temperature of 0 °C (273 K, thus frozen), much cooler than the dimmest red dwarfs of today, and water ice clouds forming in its atmosphere. The luminosity of these objects would be more than a thousand times smaller than the faintest stars currently existing and their lifetimes would be also sensibly longer.^[1]

References

Star
Evolution	Formation Pre-main-sequence star Main sequence Red giant branch Horizontal branch Asymptotic giant branch Dredge-up Instability strip Red clump PG1159 star Mira variable Planetary nebula Protoplanetary nebula Luminous red nova Luminous blue variable Wolf–Rayet star Stellar population Supernova Supernova impostor Hypernova Hertzsprung–Russell diagram Color–color diagram
Protostars	Molecular cloud H II region Bok globule Young stellar object Herbig–Haro object Hayashi track Henyey track Orion T Tauri FU Orionis Herbig Ae/Be
Luminosity class	Subdwarf Dwarf Blue Red White Yellow Black Brown Subgiant Giant Blue Red Bright giant Supergiant Blue Red Yellow Hypergiant Yellow Blue straggler Variable star
Spectral classification	O B A F G K M Be OB Subdwarf O Subdwarf B Late-type Chemically peculiar Am Ap/Bp Oscillating Barium Carbon CH CN Extreme helium Lambda Boötis Lead Mercury-manganese S Shell Technetium
Remnants	White dwarf Black dwarf Helium planet Neutron star Pulsar Binary X-ray X-ray binary X-ray burster Magnetar Stellar black hole Compact star Quark Strange Preon Planck Exotic Stellar core: EF Eridani B
Theoretical stars	Dark-matter star Dark-energy star Black star Gravastar Frozen star Q star Quasi-star Thorne–Żytkow object Iron star Blitzar
Nucleosynthesis	Deuterium burning Lithium burning Proton–proton chain CNO cycle Helium flash Triple-alpha process Carbon burning Neon burning Oxygen burning Alpha process Silicon burning S-process R-process Fusor Nova Remnants
Structure	Core Convection zone Microturbulence Oscillations Radiation zone Atmosphere Photosphere Starspot Chromosphere Corona Stellar wind Bubble Asteroseismology Eddington luminosity Kelvin–Helmholtz mechanism
Properties	Designation Dynamics Effective temperature Kinematics Magnetic field Magnitude Absolute Mass Metallicity Rotation UBV color Variability
Star systems	Binary Contact Common envelope Multiple Accretion disk Star cluster Open cluster Globular cluster Super star cluster Planetary system Earth's Solar System
Earth-centric observation of	Pole star Circumpolar star Magnitude Apparent Extinction Photographic Color Radial velocity Proper motion Parallax Photometric-standard star
Lists	Star names Arabic Chinese Extremes Most massive Highest temperature Largest volume Smallest volume Brightest Historical Most luminous Nearest Nearest bright Stars with exoplanets Brown dwarfs White dwarfs Milky Way novae Notable supernovae Supernova candidates Supernova remnants Planetary nebulae Timeline of stellar astronomy
Related articles	Substellar object Brown dwarf Sub-brown dwarf Planet Galactic year Galaxy Supercluster Helioseismology Guest star Constellation Asterism Gravity Intergalactic star Infrared dark cloud Starfield
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