Life cycle of a Star By Kailyn and Krystal

http://www.whatsnextnetwork.com/technology/media/star_forming.jpg

Star Formation:

Stars start out within the clouds of dust throughout most of galaxies, also known as a nebula. Nebulas are made up of 97% hydrogen and 3% helium.

Inside a nebula there are different places where gravity cause the gas and dust to “clump” together. The “clumps” collect more mass because their gravitational attraction to other atoms attracts some more atoms to join the “clump”.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Heic0411a.jpg

http://physics.ship.edu/~mrc/pfs/108/star_form.jpg

When the atoms are added to the center of the protostar it is called accretion. The many reactions inside a forming star causes the new protostar to become unstable. In order to be a star the protostar will need to keep equilibrium. Equilibrium is a balance between gravity pulling atoms toward the center and gas pressure pushing heat and light away.

More on Star Formation

http://www.physics.hku.hk/~nature/CD/regular_e/lectures/images/chap14/protostar.jpg

http://www.networlddirectory.com/blogs/permalinks/12-2005/most-detailed-image-of-the-crab-nebula.html

Nebula

A nebula is a cloud of dust. This is the first step of life of every star. When this cloud of dust undergoes pressure and gravity and “clumping” of particles.

(In the picture shown)

http://www.cfa.harvard.edu/image_archive/2007/72/hires.jpg

Protostar

• A Protostar is a cloud of hot, dense gas and dust particles that is collapsing because of gravity to form a star

• Depending on the mass, a protostar can last from 100,000 to 10 million years.

• A protostar is surrounded by a thick blanket of dust and gas that shields visible light but allows large amounts of infrared and microwave radiation to get through.

The Life of a Low Mass Star

1.Protostar

A Brown Dwarf

http://www.historyforkids.org/scienceforkids/physics/space/pictures/browndwarf.jpg

• A brown dwarf is an undeveloped star that doesn’t have enough mass to go through the nuclear fusion that makes the energy in normal stars.

• A main sequence star is a normal star, like the sun, that makes its energy by burning hydrogen in nuclear reactions. We see mostly main sequence stars in in the sky at night

• Brown Dwarf *OR *Main Sequence star

• A brown dwarf isn’t really a true star.

3. Red Giant • A Red Giant is a star that changes hydrogen to helium through nuclear fusion.

http://library.thinkquest.org/3103/nonshocked/topics/redgiants/images/redgiant.gif

http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=Red+giant&form=QBIR&qs=n&adlt=strict#focal=9cee2815fc88acb1904db270c3f75a0d&furl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.lancs.ac.uk%2Fug%2Fhilditch%2Fpic3.gif

http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=Red+giant&form=QBIR&qs=n&adlt=strict#focal=2b566b6e229ec57eb7bd1cd5b77a411b&furl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.profiledesigninc.com%2Fimages%2FOMOS-SO%2FReach4theStars%2FRed-Giant.JPG

• It weighs one half to ten times as much as our Sun.

• Red Giants appear to be red (hence the name) and are very large.

• Sooner or later all the hydrogen in the center changes to helium which causes the nuclear reaction to stop. Due to gravity, the center will get smaller and the outside will get hotter. The remaining hydrogen on the outside will fuse to make helium. The outer layers will then get much bigger and brighter

4. Planetary Nebula

A planetary nebula is a nebula that is made up of gas and plasma. Planetary nebulas are made up of certain types of stars when they die.

The Cat’s Eye Nebula

http://images.absoluteastronomy.com/images/topicimages/p/pl/planetary_nebula.gif

• Compared to a star they do not last very long (only tensof thousands of years)

• Red Giants turn into planetary nebulas when they die

5.White Dwarf

http://www-tc.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/gamma/images/cosm_whitedwarf.jpg

• A white dwarf is a star with enormous density. However, it is very faint. (That means it doesn’t shine brightly.)

• A white dwarf is the remains of a star that has collapsed.

• The sun will become a white dwarf after it has used all its fuel.

http://media.photobucket.com/image/white%20dwarf/RASITHIEL/RASTAFARI/WhiteDwarfSirius.jpg

6. Black DwarfA black dwarf is made when a white dwarf gets too cool

and can’t make large amounts of heat and light anymore.

Black dwarfs are not actually known to exist because it takes longer than the age of the universe for a white dwarf to become one.

This is what scientists think a black dwarf will look like since they don’t exist yet.

http://72.10.106.43:81/cgi/block.cgi?URL=http://img394.imageshack.us/img394/5443/blackdwarf1ps.jpg&IP=159.247.236.221&CAT=IMAGES&USER=IPGROUP

High Mass Star1.) Protostar

2.) Main sequence star (which has already been described)

(A large star)

3. SUPERGIANT

http://courses.ncssm.edu/kolena/hou/betelgeuse.jpg

• A supergiant is one of the largest stars in the Universe.

This is a massive supergiant star.

This is another supergiant.

http://www.msfc.nasa.gov/NEWSROOM/photos/photogallery/chandra/images/CXO_eCAR1200dpi_m.jpg

• Their diameter can be up to 1,000 times bigger than the sun.

• The north star (Polaris) and Betelgeuse (in Orion’s belt) are both Supergiants

Supernova4. Supernova

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d4/Keplers_supernova.jpg

• A supernova is when a really big star (a supergiant) explodes.

• It happens when a star runs out of enough energy to make light and heat

• Supernovas us up their energy really fast because gravity presses on their center extremely hard.

• Supernovas are HUGE explosions that rarely happen.

- This is because when the explosion happens it creates “heavy elements” and we need those elements for living things

• Without supernovas life on Earth would not be possible.

Neutron Star

http://www.thedailygreen.com/cm/thedailygreen/images/wo/stars-sky-lg.jpg

5. Neutron StarA Neutron star is a very dense and small star made mostly of neutrons. A neutron star is held together by gravity. They are normally 1.4 to 5 times bigger than the sun.

This diagram shows you how dense neutron stars really are, and what the are made of. It also tells you how many mores times the mass of the sun it has.

http://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Neutron_star_cross_section.jpg

Black holeOR 5. Black HoleThe other possibility that a supernova can turn into is a black hole. A black hole has such a strong pull of gravity that even light can escape it.

Black holes are created any time there is a bunch of matter in a tiny space and without enough energy to stop gravity from making it collapse. This happens after a supernova explosion.

This is what scientists can predict a black Hole looks like

http://electron.cs.uwindsor.ca/~jones11l/img/329px-Black_Hole_Milkyway.jpg

Hydrogen Fusion• Basically, in Hydrogen

Fusion, four Hydrogen nuclei (or protons) come together to make a Helium nucleus.

• This process happens in our sun

• Hydrogen Fusion releases a lot of energy. This energy fuels the sun

• Helium Fusion is basically just a bunch of nuclear fusion reactions

• In these reactions three helium nuclei are turned into carbon

• Helium Fusion is also called the Triple-alpha process

Helium Fusion

BibliographyBibliography• http://nasascience.nasa.gov/astrophysics/how-do-stars-form-and-evolve

• http://aspire.cosmic-ray.org/labs/star_life/starlife_proto.html

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_formation#Low_mass_and_high_mass_star_formation

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_formation

• http://www.answers.com/topic/brown-dwarf

• http://imagine.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/ask_astro/answers/971016.html

• http://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planetary_nebula

• http://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_dwarf

• http://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_dwarf

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supergiant

• http://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neutron_star

• http://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supernova

• http://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Black_Hole_Milkyway.jpgwww.history.com/content/space