The Deaths of Stars

These flashcards cover key concepts related to the deaths of stars, their remnants, and various phenomena associated with supernovae, black holes, and neutron stars.

Nova

An apparently new star in the sky produced by an eruption around a stellar remnant.

Supernova

A particularly luminous and long-lasting nova caused by the violent, explosive death of a star.

Nuclear Fusion

The process through which stars generate energy by combining lighter atomic nuclei into heavier ones.

Gravity

The force that pulls objects toward each other, which stars resist by generating energy to create high pressure.

Giant Star

A star that has expanded after exhausting its hydrogen fuel and begins to fuse helium into heavier elements.

Red Dwarf

A low-mass star that has a long lifespan due to burning its fuel slowly.

Planetary Nebula

An astronomical object formed from the expelled outer atmosphere of a dying medium-mass star.

White Dwarf

A stellar remnant that is hot and dense, having exhausted its nuclear fuel and is composed mostly of degenerate matter.

Accretion Disk

A structure formed by diffused material in orbital motion around a central body, often seen in binary star systems.

Type Ia Supernova

A supernova that occurs in a binary system when a white dwarf accumulates matter from its companion star until it explodes.

Neutron Star

A highly dense compact star formed from the remnants of a supernova explosion, composed almost entirely of neutrons.

Black Hole

A region in space where the gravitational field is so strong that nothing, not even light, can escape from it.

Angular Momentum

The tendency of a rotating object to continue rotating, conserved in the absence of external forces.

Gravitational Redshift

The phenomenon where light emitted from a source in a strong gravitational field loses energy and shifts to longer wavelengths.

Singularity

A point in space where density becomes infinite, typically occurring at the center of a black hole.

Hypernova

An extremely energetic supernova that results from the collapse of massive stars and produces intense bursts of gamma radiation.