You posted:

And then the Sunlike
star reaches near the end of its life, the neutron star evolves into a
millisecond pulsar, the Sunlike star goes into white dwarf phase. And
all this happens in the agonizingly brief period of a billion years or so?

Naahhht !

Our Sun's lifetime is over 11 billions years. If the white dwarf was so
"Sunlike," how is it that it only lived for less than a billion years?


A star only somewhat more massive than our sun has a substantially
shorter lifespan. Also, lack of heavier elements will affect the rate
of nuclear reactions in the core of such a star, altering its
evolutionary sequence. A planet could be captured into orbit around the
two stars, or could have been formed from material released by a
supernova explosion which was then perturbed into forming a gas
giant.
--
David W. Knisely
Prairie Astronomy Club: http://www.prairieastronomyclub.org
Hyde Memorial Observatory: http://www.hydeobservatory.info/

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