The Life Cycle of a Star

A Really “Hot” Topic

By Samantha Edgington
 Objectives
• Describe how stars are formed.
• Explain the concept of equilibrium.
• Define the “death” of a star.
• Identify the different types of stars.
• Describe how the process
of nuclear fusion works
within a star.
 What is a Nebula?
• A nebula can be defined as a
thinly spread cloud of interstellar
gas and dust.
• Some nebulae are the remains of
a supernova explosion.
– the death and collapse of a massive
star can cause this explosion, this
means nebulae can be the remains
of old, dead stars.
• Most nebulae are gravity-induced
condensations of gases where
protostars are born.
 How is a Protostar Formed?
• Inside a nebula, there are areas where
gravity causes dust and gas to “clump”
together.
• As these “clumps” gather more and more
mass their gravitational pull increases,
forcing more atoms together.
• This process is known as accretion, and
the result is a protostar.
 How does a Protostar Become
a Star?
• In order to comprehend this
process, the concept of
equilibrium must be
understood.
• Equilibrium is in essence a
balance.
• In the case of star formation
this balance exists between
gravity and gas pressure.
 Achieving Equilibrium
• First gravity pulls gas and dust inward
towards the core of the prospective star.
• Inside the core, density and temperature
increases as atomic collisions increase,
causing a rise in gas pressure.
• Finally when gas pressure is equal
to gravity, the protostar has reached
equilibrium and is therefore reached a
reasonably stable size.
The Birth
• Once the protostar has
achieved equilibrium
one of two things occur:
 If there is not a sufficient
mass, it becomes a brown
dwarf which is a “star” that
doesn’t radiate much heat
and light.
 In the event it does
contain an appropriate
amount of matter, nuclear
fusion begins and light is
emitted.
 The Main Sequence
• A star is basically a huge ball of gas undergoing
nuclear fusion.
• The main sequence phase is where stars spend
the majority of their “life” by fusing hydrogen into
helium.
• There are two types of main sequence
stars:
 a red giant which is a large bright
star with a cool surface.
 a red dwarf which are very cool, faint
and small stars
 The Ending of Main Sequence
• The star slowly shrinks over billions
of years as the hydrogen is used by
fusion.
• The star’s temperature, density, and
pressure at the core continues to
increase.
• Once the hydrogen is depleted, the
helium is fused into carbon, when
this occurs the star has reached “old
age”.
 The Death
• There are one of two ways a star can die
depending on its size.
• If the star is of low mass, it expands its outer
layers, creating nebulae and a white dwarf
forms from the core.
• If it is of high mass, death occurs in a
massive explosion known as a supernova,
the remaining core then transforms into a
neutron star or a black hole.
 What is a White Dwarf?
• They form from the core of a dead red giants
that were too small to fuse carbon.
• Since they do not undergo fusion,
they have no energy source and
gradually fade.
• When they radiate away all of
their energy they will theoretically
become a black dwarf.
• Since white dwarfs cannot be
older than the universe (13.7 billion
years) no black dwarfs are currently in
existence.
 What is a Supernova?
• They can form when the gravitational potential
energy—created by a sudden gravitational
collapse of a large red giant—heats and expels
the star's outer layers, resulting in an explosion.
• Also, they can form when a white dwarf ignites
carbon fusion, which results in a runaway
nuclear fusion reaction and causes a supernova.
• Supernovae can be so immense that the energy
produced can equal the energy the Sun creates
over a time period of 10 billion years!
 What is a Neutron Star?
• A neutron star is formed as a result of a massive
star being compressed.
• The core material, known as neutron degenerate
matter, mostly consists of neutrons with a few
protons and electrons.
• The gravity is so intense that if an object were to
reach the surface it would disperse all of its
subatomic particles and merge with the star!
• The matter is so dense that a teaspoon would
weigh billions of tonnes!
• Some people view neutron stars as giant atoms.
 What is a Stellar Black Hole?
• If a collapsing star exceeds
the maximum mass a neutron
star can be it will develop into
a stellar black hole.
• Black holes are extremely
dense areas with a
gravitational pull so powerful
not even light can escape!
• What could be a reason why
black holes are black?
 Chart of the Stars
Star Type Solar Mass Temperature (K) Color
Red Giant 10 - 15 2,500 - 3,500 orange - red
Red Dwarf 0.1 - 0.5 2,500 – 3,500 red
Blue Giant 10 - 15 ~30,000 blue - white
Brown Dwarf 0.013 - ~1,000 red
0.084
Yellow Dwarf 0.8 -1 5,300 - 6,000 white - yellow
White Dwarf < 1.4 4,000 - 150,000 white
Neutron Star 1.4 - 3 ~1,000,000 blue
The Sun’s Life
• Now that a basic
overview of a star’s
life cycle has been
covered, the details of
the most important
star’s life can be
revealed.
• Can you guess what
type of star the Sun
is?
 The Sun in Main Sequence
• The Sun was born like any other star, out
of a nebulae and into a protostar.
• It is now in its main sequence and can be
classified as a yellow dwarf.
• The Star is about 4.57 billion years old,
about halfway through its complete
lifecycle.
 The Sun’s Death
• Since the Sun is considerably smaller it will
not explode in a supernova.
• Instead it is predicted that it will become a
red giant in about ~6 billion years.
• When this occurs, all the water on earth will
be vaporized and life will cease to exist.
• In the final phase the Sun will form a white
dwarf and slowly fade out of existence.
 Works Cited
• www.dictionary.com
• aspire.cosmicray.org/labs/star_life/starlife_proto.html
• www.astro.keele.ac.uk/workx/starlife/StarpageS_26M.html
• http://www.telescope.org/pparc/res8.html
• www.antonine-education.co.uk
• www.darkstar1.co.uk
• www.pbs.org
• outreach.jach.hawaii.edu
• www.spaceflightnow.com
• wikipedia.org
• www.cosmographica.com