life cycle of stars. life cycle of stars the path a star takes over its lifetime depends solely on...

Life Cycle of Stars

Life Cycle of Stars

The path a star takes over its lifetime depends solely on its MASS!!

Stellar Nursery NEBULA All stars begin their life in a NEBULA. A NEBULA is a giant cloud of gas and

dust.

If there is enough matter in the cloud gravity will pull together and FUSION will occur.

Fusion is the process of lighter elements (Hydrogen) coming together to form heavier elements (Helium).

PROTOSTAR Fusion and gravity create a baby

star!! A PROTOSTAR is born! Stars create heat and energy

through fusion.

AVERAGE STARS (Our SUN)

Average stars spend most of their life as boring MAIN SEQUENCE stars.

Our Sun is a great example of a MAIN SEQUENCE star in the middle of its life (4.5 billion years old.)

Average Stars-The End is Near!

As an average, main sequence star gets older and larger, it becomes a RED GIANT.

“PUFF”

The outer layers of the Red Giant blow off its remaining gas which forms a new Stellar Nebula .

WHITE DWARF

The core of the star shrinks down to small very dense WHITE DWARF and continues to burn until all its fuel has run out .

BLACK DWARF

When all the fuel has run out it is a dead star

MASSIVE STARS Massive stars are much hotter and

brighter than their smaller relatives and are often bluish-white

They will also live as a MAIN SEQUENCE star

Massive Red Giant Eventually, they will make it to

the RED SUPERGIANT stage as they age and cool.

This is just like a red giant except bigger and hotter. A LOT bigger and hotter.

SUPERNOVA After the Massive stars “PUFF” out

their gas and dust from their farthest outer layer,

they….EXPLODE!!!!

SUPERNOVA It will light up the skies for

weeks or months. A supernova will briefly outshine

its own galaxy when it explodes.

MASSIVE STARS After the massive star goes Supernova it can travel down one of two pathways…either

A BLACK HOLE Or

A NEUTRON STAR!!!

NEUTRON STAR In a neutron star, all the

leftover matter from the massive star is crushed and condensed down to a core smaller than the Earth.

They are extremely dense and have tremendous amounts of gravity.

Neutron stars are also known as PULSARS because of the pulses of gamma rays they give off.

BLACK HOLE The largest of the massive stars

have so much mass that after a supernova, the leftover material collapses in on itself causing a rip or “hole”. Gravity is so strong not even light can escape!

LIFE CYCLE OF STAR