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12/19/2014 Stellar Evolution:
Aim: The Life Cycle of a Star
Do Now: Where do stars come from? What are they made of?
Notepack 23
What is a Star?
What is a Star?
• A star is a massive ball of gas that has
ignited due to tremendous heat and
pressure.
• Stars “burn” as the results of 2 Hydrogen
atoms fusing together to create a Helium
atom.
How do stars put hydrogen atoms together?
• Stars perform nuclear reaction to put hydrogens
together.
• There are 2 types of nuclear reactions:
– Fission reactions which splits atoms apart.
• This creates a lot of energy
• Makes harmful waste produces (radioactive)
• Used by nuclear power plants
– Fusion reactions which combines atoms to make new
ones.
• Creates enormous energy
• Needs a lot of energy to start it.
• Waste products are “clean”
• Used by stars.
Age of a Star
• Scientists can predict the age of a star based
on the ratio of Hydrogen and Helium it has.
• Stars that have a lot of hydrogen (majority)
is send to be a young star.
• Stars the have a lot of helium is said to be an
old star.
• Scientist use a spectrometer to measure
color emitted from the star to determine how
much hydrogen it has.
Types of Stars
• Due to the different ages of stars and the
amount of gas the star started with, we get
many different types of stars
Types of Stars
• There are many different types of stars – Hot Stars
• Blue
– Cold Stars • Red
– Large Stars • Supergiants
• Giants – These stars have a high luminosity – they are very bright
– Small Stars • Dwarfs
– These stars have a low luminosity – they are very dim
Luminosity
• Luminosity means the brightness of the star.
• The reason why some stars shine brighter than others is because these stars are creating enormous energy.
• The color of the star tells you it’s temperature.
Our Sun
• Description of our Sun
– Main Sequence
– Yellow
– About 6,000oC
• Our sun is an average star
– Not too big/Not too small
– Not too hot/Not too cold
– Not too bright/Not too dim
Medium Size Stars
• Take about 1 million years to form
• Spend about 10 billion years on the main-
sequence
• Similar to our sun
– Diameter: 1,391,400
– Mass: 1.99 x 1030 kg (1 solar mass)
Supergiant
• Largest and Hottest stars
• Form quickly (100,000 years)
• Die quickly (average 100 million years)
• Contain about 8 times (or more) the mass of the Sun
• They die in an explosion – Called a supernova
Red Dwarfs
• Smallest and coldest stars
• Take a long time to form (millions of years)
• Live for a very long time (trillions of
years?)
How Stars Form • Stars begin their lives as Nebula
• Nebula: A giant cloud of gas and dust in
space
• Typical Temperature: 100 K (-279°C)
COLD!!
Rosette Nebula
Red = Hydrogen, Green = Oxygen, Yellow = Sulfur
Eagle Nebula
Dark Nebula – there’s so much dust that it obscures
the background stars
Horsehead Nebula
North American Nebula
Pleides Star Cluster (7 sisters)
Bok Globule – Small dark clouds made of gas and dust
where new stars are forming
Collapse of a large cloud will ultimately result in a
star cluster
How Stars Form
• Every atom has gravity.
• Gravity is an attraction between atoms.
• As atoms get closer to each other the
attraction between them increase.
• Gravity increases as the atoms
combine. – The more atoms, the more
gravity.
• The more gravity there is – the more
atoms are pull to it.
How Stars Form
• Every atom in the nebula has gravity.
• As these atoms move close to each other,
they are attracted to each other.
• This attraction causes them to combine,
thereby increasing the gravity pull.
• Has the gravity pull increases, so is the
amount of atoms being pulled to the center.
• This action causes the nebula to be less like
a gas and more like a solid.
• 1st Stage of Life
– Ball of gas and dust that is pulled
together by gravity
– Nuclear fusion starts as gas cloud
becomes denser and hotter
• Nuclear Fusion hydrogen atoms fuse
into helium
– Creates the intense energy found in
stars
• Depending on how much gas was in
the nebula and how large in size the
nebula was will depend on how long
the star will stay in each stage of its
life.
– Stage 2 - Main Sequence
– Stage 3 - Giants
– Stage 4- Super Giants
– Stage 5 - White Dwarfs or Nova
• Main Sequence (the Sun)
–2nd stage
–Longest stage (usually)
–Hydrogen changes into helium
which creates enormous amounts
of energy
–The size of the star does not
change much
–The star is somewhat stable
• Giants and Supergiants
– 3rd and 4th stages
– Main Sequence star becomes a red giant
• Red giant star that expands and cools once is
loses all its hydrogen
– Center shrinks and atmosphere grows large and
cools
In the future, our Sun will become a Red Giant.
It will grow so large that it size will overlap the
Earth’s orbit, consuming the Earth.
• Possible 5th stage #1
• White Dwarf small hot star that is the leftover center of an older star
– Final stage
– Can shine for billions of years before they extinguish
• Possible 5th stage #2
• Red giant uses all of the hydrogen and collapse on itself.
• The collapsing star then explodes (a nova)
• The remnants of the star’s core will form either: – Black hole
– A neutron star
• Supernova gigantic explosion in
which a massive star collapses
– Occurs after a massive star uses up
its fuel source
• Neutron Star a star that has
collapsed to a point at which all
particles are neutrons
– A neutron star that spins and sends
out beams of radiation is called a
pulsar
• Age of stars
–Average stars become red
giants then white dwarfs
–More massive stars explode
into a variety of objects
• Hertzprung-Russell Diagram
–Shows the relationship between
a star’s surface temperature and
absolute magnitude
–Used to study the lives of stars
–Most stars lie along the main
sequence portion of the diagram