Topic: STELLAR EVOLUTION

Participants:
Caryl Joy I. Empuerto
Renier I. Iremedio
Veronica Irenea D. Barrera

Malinao School for Philippine Craftsmen

Biga-a, Aklan

Coaches:
Mrs. Ma Catherine I. Carmen
Mr. Raymon Jeffred I. Ileto

Summary
The topic we have chosen is the Stellar Evolution. Aside from the fact that we have
tackled this lesson during our Physical Science subject, it turns out that we actually liked this
topic to be our topic in this contest and we didn’t argue about what topic to choose.
The process through which a star evolves over time is known as stellar evolution. We
would watch how stars are formed, aged, and finally died depending on their mass, which can
range from a few million years for the most massive to trillions of years for the least massive,
which is far longer than the duration of the universe.
Stars are born, grow up, and eventually die. The exact way that stars change as they age
or how they evolve depends on how massive they are at birth. One of the fundamental concepts
in astronomy is that stars evolve over time; they are born from clouds of interstellar gas and dust,
they shine by their own light created by nuclear fusion of hydrogen in their cores, and they
eventually run out of fuel and die, returning some of their mass to interstellar space.
The life of a star eventually started as giant cloud of gas and dust called nebula then
drove by the gravity together until it spins faster and turns into a protostar, then eventually the
main sequence star, where it starts to form when nuclear fusion occurs at the core of the star, it
begins to contract, glow and become stable, converting hydrogen to helium.
From here, it is divided then into two, the average and massive star. Average star includes
red giant, then after the red giant becomes exhausted the outer material is blown off into space
leaving inner carbon and its remnants became known as white dwarf and if it cooled down and
no longer emits light and heat, it is hypothetically known as black dwarf.
After the main sequence, the massive star becomes a red supergiant, the largest known
star, and then it explodes, sending massive amounts of energy and elements into space, which we
name a supernova. Following that, the star might either become a black hole or a neutron star.

Script

Caryl: The life and death of stars form the chemical elements that make up Earth, making stars
critical to life as we know it. Look up at the night sky. Although stars appear to be eternal
features in the night sky, did you realize that they die? The chemical elements hydrogen, helium,
and trace amounts of lithium and beryllium were all that existed in the early cosmos. Stars
produce elements with low atomic masses during their life cycles.

INTRO

Caryl: Millions of years after the Big Bang, stellar evolution began. That's when a massive
cloud of gas and dust known as a nebula begins to collapse due to gravity. Gravity drove the
clouds together in a geologic blink of an eye, hundreds of thousands of years later, until they
spun faster and faster and ignited, forming a protostar. Because stars are predominantly made of
hydrogen, the earliest fusion happens at the hydrogen core of stars such as the sun, which has a
temperature of less than 15 million Kelvin, and as more hydrogen is burnt into helium, the core
of a star becomes helium-dominated.

Renier: The star now has a hydrogen shell and a dense helium core. The temperature and density
of the star's core rise to 100 million Kelvin as a result of this activity. The heat pressure of the
star forces the gas to escape and the star to expand into a red giant.

Veronica: For a medium-sized star, like our sun, it passes through planetary nebula, and for
large stars, it goes through supernova. Following the explosion, stars such as ours will become
white dwarfs, then will become black dwarfs, like a stone lost in space. Massive stars degenerate
into neutron stars or black holes.
Caryl: We can see here the simple diagram for us to easily understand the life cycle of a star.
First, we have a giant cloud of gas and dust called nebula. Second, is the protostar. And third is
the main sequence star, where it starts to form when nuclear fusion occurs at the core of the star,
it begins to contract, glow and become stable, converting hydrogen to helium.

Veronica: From here, it is then divided into two identification of stars, which are the Average
star and the Massive star.

Renier: From the average star, after the main sequence, the star becomes a red giant, where the
star is unable to generate heat when it runs out of hydrogen in its core leading to its contraction
and explosion and cools down and glows red after. And after that, red giant star becomes
exhausted of nuclear fuel, the outer material is blown off into space leaving inner carbon and its
remnants became known as white dwarf and if it cooled down and no longer emits light and heat,
it is hypothetically known as black dwarf.

Veronica: For the massive star, after the main sequence, the star becomes red super giant, which
is the largest known star, then the star will explode releasing large amount of energy and
elements in space which we call the supernova. And after this, the star could become either the
black hole or a neutron star.

Caryl: No matter how a star dies, its life cycle can transform the universe. Without stars, the
universe would contain nothing but clouds of hydrogen and helium.

OUTRO