The Formation of Stars

Life cycle of Solar Mass Stars

1. Nebula:
 All stars form from a giant cloud of hydrogen gas and dust called a nebula.

2. Protostar:
 The force of gravity within a nebula pulls the particles closer together until it
forms a hot ball of gas, known as a protostar.
 As the particles are pulled closer together the density of the protostar
will increase.
 This will result in more frequent collisions between the particles which causes
the temperature to increase.

3. Main Sequence Star:

 Once the protostar becomes hot enough, nuclear fusion reactions occur within
its core.
 The hydrogen nuclei fuse to form helium nuclei.
 Every fusion reaction releases heat (and light) energy which keeps the core hot.
 Once a star becomes a main-sequence star, it is said to be stable because
the inward force due to gravity is equal to the outward pressure force from
the fusion reactions.
 The stable period may last for up to 10 000 million years (i.e. 1010 = 10 billion
years), during which most of the hydrogen in the core is converted to helium.
 The remaining life cycle will depend on its mass.
 The different life cycles are shown below:
 4. Red Giant:

 After several billion years the hydrogen causing the fusion reactions in the star will
begin to run out
 Once this happens, the fusion reactions in the core will start to die down.
 This causes the core to shrink and heat up because the inward force due to gravity
will become greater than the outward force due to the pressure of the expanding
gases.
 A new series of fusion reactions will then occur around the core, for
example, helium nuclei will undergo fusion to form carbon and beryllium.
 These reactions will cause the outer part of the star to expand.
 It will become a red giant.

5. Planetary Nebula:

 Once this second stage of fusion reactions have finished, the star will
become unstable and eject the outer layer of dust and gas. The layer of dust and gas
which is ejected is called a planetary nebula.

6. White Dwarf

 The core which is left behind will collapse completely, due to the pull of gravity, and
the star will become a white dwarf on cooling down. As a result, the amount
of energy it emits will decrease

7. Black Dwarf;

Once the star has lost a significant amount of energy it becomes a black dwarf. It will
continue to cool until it eventually disappears.

The Life Cycle of Larger Stars

 A large star is one which is bigger than the Sun

 Stars that are larger than the Sun have much shorter lifespans of hundreds of
millions of years (instead of billions). This is because they burn through the fuel in
nuclear fusion much quicker than smaller stars. The life cycle of a star bigger than the
Sun starts in the same way as a solar mass star.

1. Nebula
All stars form from a giant cloud of hydrogen gas and dust called a nebula.

2. Protostar
 The force of gravity within a nebula pulls the particles closer together until it
forms a hot ball of gas, known as a protostar.
 As the particles are pulled closer together the density of the protostar
will increase.
 This will result in more frequent collisions between the particles which causes
the temperature to increase.
3. Main Sequence Star

 Once the protostar becomes hot enough, nuclear fusion reactions occur within its
core. The hydrogen nuclei will fuse to form helium nuclei. Every fusion reaction
releases heat (and light) energy which keeps the core hot.

4. Red Supergiant

 Eventually, the main sequence star will reach a stage when it starts to run out of
hydrogen gas in its core. The fusion reactions in the core will start to die down.
 This causes the core to shrink and heat up because the inward force due
to gravity is greater than the outward force due to the pressure of the expanding
gases
 A new series of fusion reactions will then occur around the core, for
example helium nuclei will undergo fusion to form much heavier elements like
carbon, oxygen, nitrogen and iron etc.
 These fusion reactions will cause the outer part of the star to expand and it will
become a super red giant, much larger than a red giant.

5. Supernova

 Once the fusion reactions inside the red supergiant finally finish, the core of the star
will collapse suddenly causing a gigantic explosion. This is called a supernova.
 During a supernova, all of the elements which were produced by the fusion reactions
are exploded out along with neutrons.
 The neutrons combine with the elements to form even heavier elements such as
carbon, oxygen, nitrogen and iron.
 These elements are ejected into the universe by the supernova explosion and form
new planets and stars.
 Since Earth contains many heavy elements up to Iron, this is proof that it must have
once been made from the remains of a Supernova.
 The dense core may form either a neutron star or a black hole.

6. Neutron Star

 The centre of the supernova (nebula) collapses to a very dense neutron star, which
spins rapidly and acts as a pulsar, sending out pulses of radio waves.

7. Black hole:

 In the case of the biggest stars, the neutron star that forms at the centre will continue
to collapse under the force of gravity until it forms a black hole. A black hole is
an extremely dense point in space that not even light can escape from.