This is the Milky Way from Concordia Camp, in Pakistan’s Karakoram Range. While many of the stars seen here may have already died, their stellar remnants continue to shine on. Image credit: Anne Dirkse / http://www.annedirkse.com.

When will the first star go dark?

It hasn’t happened yet in the entire Universe, not even once.

“End? No, the journey doesn’t end here. Death is just another path, one that we all must take. The grey rain-curtain of this world rolls back, and all turns to silver glass, and then you see it.” -J.R.R. Tolkien

Ever since the first star in the Universe ignited some 13.7 billion years ago, the Universe has been flooded with light. When enough matter — mostly hydrogen and helium gas — gravitates together into a single, compact object, nuclear fusion will take place inside the core, giving rise to a true star. But as time goes on and fusion continues, eventually that star will run out of fuel. Sometimes, the star is massive enough that additional fusion reactions will take place, but at some point, it all must stop. When those stars finally die, however, their remnants shine on. In fact, the Universe hasn’t been around long enough for even a single remnant to stop shining. Here’s the story of how long we’ll need to wait for the first star to go dark.

It all begins from a cloud of gas. When a cloud of molecular gas collapses under its own gravity, there are always a few regions that start off just a little bit denser than others. Every location with matter in it does its best to attract more and more matter towards it, but these…