Life Cycle of a Star
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Transcript Life Cycle of a Star
Life Cycle of a Star
A journey through it’s birth ‘til it’s death.
By Anna, Damon, Shannon, Jon, and Patricia
Objectives
How stars are formed
What they are made
up of
What happens in the
middle of life
Death of stars of
different sizes
Birth of a Star
Enormous clouds of
gas and dust
Gravity tries to pull
the materials together
A giant ball forms
Center of ball reaches
15 million degrees
Nuclear fusion
What is it?
Enormous pressure at center of ball
A plasma is created
Nuclei crash together, then fuse
Midlife of a Star
Goal is to reach
equilibrium
Main Sequence:
1. Basic Reactions
2. Hydrostatic equilibrium
3. Transport of energy
Hertzsprung-Russell (HR) Diagram
Death of a Star
(depending on the mass of the star
)
Sun-like stars (mass under 1.5 times the mass of
the Sun)
Huge Stars (mass between 1.5 and 3 times the mass
of the sun)
Giant Stars (mass over 3 times the mass of the Sun)
Sun like stars
(mass under 1.5 times the mass of the sun.)
Become Red Giants
After exhausting their
hydrogen they burn
Helium
Outer Layers Ejected to
Planetary Nebula
Leaving a dense white
dwarf
White Dwarf 1.4
No fuel left to burn
Radiates remaining Heat
Eventually becomes a
Black Dwarf if nothing
else effects star
Red Super Giant
Rare due to short life span
2000 known in galaxy
Made up of Helium, Hydrogen,
and carbon
8-10 times more massive then
sun
Extremely bright for hundred
thousand to a million years
Implodes on itself ending in a
type II supernova
Supernova
Explosion of a star in space
Occurs when nuclear fuel is exhausted
No longer supported by release of nuclear energy
A rare event in our galaxy (last being seen in 1604)
Remnants can be seen for several weeks
Supernova end phase is a neutron star
Neutron Star
Final stage in death of a star
May appear in supernova remnants, as isolated objects
or in binary systems
About 20km and 1.4 times more massive then our sun
Posses gravitational field about 2 x 10^11 that of earth
Escape velocity is about half the speed of light
Are electrically neutral
Death of Huge stars
(mass between 1.5 to 3 times that of our sun)
Giant Stars
(mass over 3 times the mass of the sun.)
Red Super Giants
Supernova
Black holes
Summery
Stars are made up of interstellar gasses, dust
and gravity
The goal of a star is to reach an equilibrium
What a star turns into when it dies depends on
the size of the star whether it is smaller then our
sun, the same size or larger then our sun