It is our sun's destiny to become a white dwarf in the far future. When the sun reaches that phase, it will continue to remain hot for many billions of years; its huge bulk will be so compacted that it will trap its internal heat more efficiently than the best known insulator. However, because the internal nuclear furnace will have shut down for good, there will be no reserves of fuel to replenish the slow leakage of heat radiation into the cool depths of' space. Very, very slowly, the dwarf remnant of what was once our mighty sun will cool and dim, until it embarks on its final metamorphosis, gradually solidifying into a crystal of extraordinary rigidity(ltm48)