[enLight]

I know the whole process of how stars are created and then their eventual death. My question is, if a star does not turn into a black hole, does the matter left behind eventually reform into a new star?

[Hatred]

Perhaps it turns into extremely small pieces of matter that will travel through space and join other stars. Just a try, I have no idea.

[saladasalad]

No. When a star dies all that is left is the core which is inert, it is then called a white dwarf.

[Iain]

I think quite a few things can happen to stars at the end of their lives.

Normally they blow up in some way and lose most of their matter, which shoots off into space and eventually can get caught up in other stars, planets, etc.

This is how heavy elements are distributed (e.g. metals, carbon) so we wouldn't be here at all if it wasn't for big stars creating heavy elements and then exploding. Every atom in your body was almost certainly once in at least one star, probably more than one.

After stars have exploded, the remaining matter is typically too little to be fissionable (i.e. the mass is not great enough to spontaniously kick off nuclear reactions) and the star becomes a dwarf of some sort - a bit like a large gas giant planet.

[Falleen Prince Xizor]

As opposed to black holes the likely outcome, for example, the Sun will be that:

When it finishes it's supply of Hydrogen in god-knows-how-many million years.... instead of exploding the outer shell will expand outwards and burn at a lower temperature over a higher surface area.... the Red Giant Stage....It will grow so big as to swallow up as far as earth's orbit...

A famous example of a red giant is Betelgeux in Orion....

Eventually it will run out of reserve fuel and explode in the biggest release of energy concievable.... A Supernova.... more than likely obliterating the galaxy and creating a pretty cloud like the Magellenic Clouds....only we'll never see it.... which is nice....

[Unperson-S]

As our Sun, is only a small Star, for its age, it will never ever create a Supernova - that is only for Large Stars, and, for a black hole, you also need a supernova, so sorry, but there will never be a black hole in this solar system.

The Sun, will swell, and cool to a Red Giant, but, as you say, it will explode, but hardly anything compared to a Supernova. The Sun, as some have said, will then decrease to its core becoming a dull-lit White Dwarf, and slowly burn itself out of fuel and eventually die. What happens to the core, however, is completely beyond me.

[Demosthenes]

Ok, again from my Big Book of the Universe:

The sun will eventually burn through it's supply of Hydrogen, expanding as it does. Once the last hydrogen atom has been used up it will convert to burning the next most fissile material: Helium.

It will then rapidly expand and consume the four inner planets. Once the Helium supply is lost it will run through the rest of the elements in order: Lithium, Berylium, Boron, Carbon, Nitrogen, Oxygen, etc...all the way down the line until it comes to Iron, which is the lightest element that is not fissile. (Note- It will have been burning Hydrogen for Billions of years, but each move up the atomic chart to a new element will be accompanied by a corresponding burning exponetially faster. IE- H burns in 10 billion years, He in 1 billion, Li in 500 million, etc.) It simply won't burn. Once this occurs the rest of the material will begin to collapse back in on itself. As the last of this material that was once our sun condenses into this solid iron core it will again explode outward in what we term a super nova.

Indeed, our sun does not possess enough material to form a black hole. So we will be left with a white dwarf that will eventually wink out all together. Whatever material escapes the sun's remaining gravitational field will indeed travel around the universe until it is picked up by some other cosmic body.

All this is from memory. If I have missed something, by all means correct it.

[Just Some Guy]

Not to be pedantic, but stars start burning He before all their supplies of hydrogen have been used up (the same with the heavier elements)

[Demosthenes]

No, that's fine...again, I was trying to recall the section I had a read awhile back. I'm open to any clarifications.

[enLight]

So in essence, it could be said that the material that does escape the sun's gavitational field (a lot due to a supernova) will sooner or later be reused as it drifts into a nebula where new stars are being formed.