Life Cycle of Stars

planetary nebula

A huge cloud of gas that is created when the outer layers of a red giant star drift out into space like a cosmic "pop", leaving behind a the hot, dense, white core.

Red Giant

Towards the end of their life cycles, these older lower mass stars expand and cool. As our Sun expands in this stage, it will swallow the inner planets - Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars!

Nebulae (Nebula)

Rotating clouds of gas and dust! The gas and dust is pulled to the center of the cloud (by gravity). At this point, this star begins to form. Though it gives off lots of heat, it does not glow with visible light yet

Red Super Giant

Towards the end of their life cycles, following the main sequence, the higher mass stars expand into these enormous stars. The biggest are 1,000 times wider than our Sun!

Black holes & Neutron Stars

Following the supernova, the remnants of dead massive stars are either 1) Black holes where the gravity surrounding is so strong that light cannot escape, or 2) Neutron stars, which are small rapidly spinning remnants with a blast of energy (pulsars) shoot out from the center.

White Dwarf

the blue-white hot core of a star that is left behind after its outer layers have expanded and "popped", sending the outer layers free into space

Supernova

Red supergiants eventually become unstable, exploding into these! The outside layers collapses into the core, then bouncing back and throwing the outer layers of the star into
space through this huge cosmic explosion!

Protostar to Main Sequence

Once the temperatures inside this protostar reach 15 million degrees, the process of nuclear fusion begins and a star is born! The joining of hydrogen atoms to create helium atoms releases so much energy that the star ignites - shining its light into the universe!

Main Sequence (lower mass)

These stars have lower mass and live longer lives than higher mass stars. Stars spend most of their lives in this stage, Currently, our Sun is one of these.

Main Sequence (higher mass)

These hot stars have more mass than stars like our Sun, and shorter life cycles than lower mass stars. Stars spend most of their lives in this stage, however, larger stars will spend less time here than smaller stars.