Life Cycle of a Star

Stars stars stars, pretty

Stellar Nebula

A giant cloud of gas and dust that shrinks under the spell of its own gravity

Average star

• Our sun in it's current state

• Medium sized

• Staying in this phase for billions of years

Massive Star

• Biggest star

• White/ blue color

• Brightest stars

• Mass: up to 100x our sun

Main Sequence Stars are formed when..

Hydrogen atoms fuse to form helium atoms

Red giant

• Expands and cools

• Glows red

• Loses outer shell in explosion

Red Supergiant

• Expands and cools

• Glows red

• Uses helium and other elements as fuel until gone

• After Hydrogen is gone, gravity pulls mass in, creating enough heat to form larger elements

Supernova

• Gravity pulls mass in

• Heat generated in collapse causes massive explosion

Planetary nebula

• What occurs when a star’s outer layer sheds

Black Hole

• Gravity is so strong, even light can't escape

• Only about 40 km across even though original star has diameter of thousands of km

Neutron Star

• Very small(10 km)

• Core of supernova

• Very faint light

• Called a neutron Star bc it's so dense, protons and electrons merge to become neutrons

White dwarf

• Remains of an average star

• Gravity holds core very close together

• Burns white hot

• Smaller than original star

Black dwarf

• Eventually all heat dies out

• Remaining mass is the same temp as space

• Dead star

Life Cycle in order

1. Stellar Nebula

2. Average/ Massive star

3. Red Giant/ Red Supergiant

4. Planetary nebula/ Supernova

5. (Planetary nebula) White dwarf

6. (Planetary Nebula) Black Dwarf

7. (Supernova) Black hole

8. (Supernova) Neutron star