Atronomy - Life Stages of Stars

How long is the life of a typical star?
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How long is the life of a typical star?
Billions of years
How do you know what a star's life cycle is?
By observing different stars in different stages of life
What is the stage of a star before it is even actually considered a star?
The Nebular Stage
What is the Nebula Stage?
The stage that basically consists of a cloud of gasses and dust called a nebula
What is the composition of a nebula?
Usually 70% hydrogen, 28% helium, and 2% heavier elements
What causes the nebula to turn into a star or change its stable state?
When a nearby explosion occurs or when the nebula has a collision with another nebula
Newton's Law of Gravitation
Gravitational force increases as distance decreases
What happens as some particles in the nebula get more and more dense?
Their gravitational pull increases and they collect more and more particles becoming more and more dense
As the spinning increases and the nebula continues to shrink, the cloud takes on a flattened disk form called what?
A protostar stage
What is the protostar stage?
The first stage in a stars life cycle
As the shrinking continues, what begins to build up in the protostar?PressureThe pressure causes an increase in what int he protostar stage?TemperatureWhat contracts and heats up for several million years?The protostarWhat is the fourth stage of matter?PlasmaWhat is plasma?It means the electrons have broken free form their atomsWhat occurs when the temperature reaches 10,000,000 degrees celsius?The Nuclear FusionWhat is after the Protostar stage?The Main Sequence StageWhat is the nebula responsible for creating?PlanetsWhat is the main sequence stageThe longest and most stable stage of a star's life cycleDuring the Main Sequence Stage energy is generated in the core of the star as what happens?As hydrogen atoms fuse to become helium atomsThe the fusion happens in the Main sequence stage what is released?A tremendous amount of radiant energyWhen one gram of hydrogen is converted into helium it would release enough energy for what?A 100 watt light bulb to burn for 3,000 yearsWhat direction does the energy move from the star?Outwards in all directionsDoes the direction of the energy moving mean that the star will grow larger?No because the gravitational pull of the star is still moving inwardsAs long as both processes are occurring what will remain?The size of the starSo as long as a star has what it will remain the same in size?A large supple of hydrogenAfter billions of years what will happen to the star?It will begin to run out of its hydrogen supplies and the star will enter its next stageWhat is the Giant or Super Giant Stage?When the supply of hydrogen dwindles in a star, the helium will then fuse to convert itself into carbonWhat causes the star to greatly expand in size?The combined energy of left over hydrogen converting into helium and then converting into carbonWhat is the size of a red giant?A medium size starWhat is the size of a Red Super Giant?A greater size than a medium sized starAre red super giants and red giants the same?Yes other than sizeHow much bigger are Red Super Giants than the sun?100 times biggerHow close is our sun to becoming a red giant?Not very close only 5% of its original hydrogen has converted into heliumWhat happens when a red giant runs out of helium?It converts into carbon and the star loses its outer gasses revealing the coreWhat are the illuminated gasses called that form a ring around the core?Planetary NebulaWhat process gravity or energy release will overtake the other?The gravity will begin to take advantage of the loss of energy from the starWhat is the White Dwarf Stage?When gravity causes the last of the matter in the core to collapse inward which creates a hot dense core of matterWhat happens to a white dwarf?It slowly cools down and becomes fainter and fainter until it no longer emits any energyAs large dwarfs slowly cool down what happens?It can cause large explosionsWhat are novas?When the explosions in the white dwarf stage occur and release a surge of energy into space that may make the white dwarf many times brighter even as much as a million times brighter than the sunWhy do some white dwarfs have explosions causing them to become novas while others do not?They are revolving around a main sequence star or red giantBecause white dwarfs are so dense, what do they do?Pull some gasses from the star they are orbitingWhat is the Black Dwarf Stage?When all of the energy is used up by a white dwarfHas a scientists ever witnessed the Black Dwarf Stage?No it is only a theoryWhen a Red Super Giant runs out of helium being converted to carbon what happens?The supernova stageHow bright can supernovas be?Up to 100 times brighter than novasWhen did the first supernova occur?It was found in 1504How long could they see the first supernova recorded?3 weeksWhat causes the Red Super Giant to explode its core?The Carbon in the Red Super Giant converts the core into ironIs iron less or more dense than the rest of the star?More denseAfter the explosion the core of the supernova may contract into an extremely dense ball of neutrons called what?The neutron star stageHow condensed is this matter in a Neutron Star?One spoonful of it would weigh 100 million tons on earthSome neutron stars rotate very rapidly and when they do they emit two beams of radiation. What are these neutron stars called?PulsarsThe force is so strong that it even crushes the dense core of the star completely, which leaves a hole in space called what?A black HoleBlack holes are so dense that what?There is not enough light to escape themHow do scientists know where they are if no light is visible from them?They emit a tremendous amount of X-Rays