Stars Born, Aging, And Dying

When stars died, chemicals other than hydrogen and helium formed, which led to the next level of complexity—Heavier Chemical Element. Most stars spent about 90% of their life over billions of years on during protons and hydrogen nuclei into helium nuclei. When they run out of fuel, the furnace at the center of the star stopped supporting the star, and gravity took over. Small stars did not have much pressure at the center. They burned hydrogen slowly over billions of years at relatively low temperatures. When they died, they would slowly fade away. However, great stars had so much mass that they can create enormous pressures and temperature, and when the giant stars ran out of hydrogen, the temperature got cranked up even higher, which led the star to collapse. The high temperature that the collapse caused was able to make helium nuclei fuse into nuclei of carbon. When a star used up its helium, it collapsed again, and the cycle started over. The star heated up and began to fuse carbon to form

Stars are the most recognized astronomical object in space and they represent the building blocks of galaxies. Stars distribute elements such as: carbon, nitrogen, and oxygen. A star develops from a cloud of hydrogen and helium, the dust clouds that are scattered throughout galaxies. An example of a dust cloud is the Orion Nebula. The gas and dust begin to collapse from its own gravitational pull. As the cloud collapses, the middle gets hotter. This is known as a prostar. A dense and hot core forms which begins to collect dust and gas. All this material may not end up as a part of the star but can become planets, asteroids, comets, or remain dust. A star about the size of our sun can up to 50 million years to mature. The smallest stars are

After a time, the hydrogen runs out almost completely, and it collapses. New reactions begin to take place in the core and these reactions cause the star to expand rapidly. As the stars begin to deplete their new fuel, they switch to others. New elements are formed in the cores of stars but they become too heavy. The star has reached its end growth. When it reaches the end, a tremendous amount of energy is released and it begins to shed its outer layers, the gravity is too weak hold onto them anymore. Once the layers are removed, in the stars place is a fiery core called a planetary nebula. Eventually, the core runs out of fuel and it collapses. This star is now in a very dense state, and is called a white dwarf. Eventually, the white dwarf cools until it no longer shines. This dead star is called a brown dwarf.More massive stars, however, have more violent ways of dying. Some stars turn it into a supergiant. Supergiant stars are extremely bright, and are extremely large. Supergiant stars cores, can collapse violently and suddenly. This collapse causes a tremendous explosion, called a

For the low-mass stars, the expansion to the red giant phase will begin when about 90% of its hydrogen has been converted to helium. During the contraction of its core, a complicated sequence of events occurs. The shrinkage required to produce the energy radiated by the large giant causes the core to shrink to the dimensions of a white dwarf, while hydrogen continues to burn by nuclear fusion in a thin shell surrounding the core. This shell provides most of the energy that is radiated away by

Stellar evolution stars exist because of gravity. The two opposing forces in a star are gravity (contracts) and thermal nuclear energy (expands). Stage 1 Birth is where gravity contracts the cloud and the temperature rises, becoming a protostar. Protostars are a hypothetical cloud of dust and atoms in space which are believed to develop into a star. Astronomers are fairly certain of their existence. Protostars are formed about a million years after a gas clump from an interstellar gas cloud has started

A white dwarf is the leftover core of a planetary nebula. A white dwarf is a low-mass star that is virtually dead. Since it is a leftover core it is extremely dense. Inside of a white dwarf, no fusion takes place. The white dwarf will continue to give off light for about 20 million years and is theorized that it will then become a black dwarf. As of now, no black dwarfs have been discovered, simply because the universe is too young. A black dwarf gives off no light and is also cold, compared to the other stars in their life cycles. These black and white dwarfs burn through their fuel very slowly, which would be why they last for millions of

During the next step of star formation the spin, pressure, and temperature inside the interstellar cloud continue to increase. Due to these increases the Bok Globules will split into the protoplanetary disk and the central core. The protoplanetary disk has the potential to actually change form and become planets. On the other hand, the central core will go on to become one of those loveable pin pricks of light in the sky that we call stars. (Strobel, Unknown)

Orion has two of the brightest stars, be Betelgeuse and Rigel. Betelgeuse is a red supergiant. The gravity of the star squeezes its core tightly, heating it to billions of degrees. It then fuses the helium to make heavier elements. When that happens, the star no longer produces energy in the core. Without the reactions in its core to push outward, gravity quickly causes the core to collapse, forming a neutron star.

The larger a star, the shorter their lifespan is, and they explode as supernovae, blasting out powerful shockwaves that create a chain-reaction that spews throughout the galaxy. Within just a few million years, the galaxy is forming stars up to hundreds of times more than a normal galaxy would. When all of the gas available is used up in about ten million years, the galaxy calms down and the period

Stage 8 is when the star starts to run out of fuel. It has spent close to 10 billion years burning hydrogen in its core and now it’s starting to run low and almost empty of the fuel it requires to keep burning. As the hydrogen starts to run low, helium levels start to increase in the higher temperature core as well as on the surface. However, the surface helium isn’t as noticeable because it doesn’t burn as high or fast as the inner core. But as the hydrogen completely runs out, the nuclear fusion subsides and a core of non-burning helium grows, forcing the burning of the star to head out of the inner core and up to the outer core. At this point, the radius of the star starts to grow rapidly because of the gas pressure and the core shrinks under the pressure of gravity.

Gravity pulls dust and gas together until it forms a ball. After a bit of time, the temperature rises from all the gas and dust bumping into each other under the great pressure of the surrounding material reaches around 15 million degrees. This is called a protostar, and it reaches a temperature of about 10 million Kelvins. This is where nuclear fusion occurs, and a star is born.

Stars generate energy via nuclear fusion of elements. Stars of the magnitude great enough to become type II supernovae possess the mass needed to fuse elements that have an atomic mass greater than hydrogen and helium. The energy generated by these fusion reactions is large enough that it is able to counter the force of gravity and prevent the star from collapsing, maintaining stellar equilibrium. The helium produced in the core builds

The process of a dying star is a more complicated and time-consuming procedure (it would take a few billion years). In fact, the dying process of a star that is similar to our Sun is slightly different from a star that is more massive than our Sun. For a star that is similar to our Sun, the process began with it shrinking as it cooled down after it ran of hydrogen, and eventually collapsed due to its weight. Once the core of a star began to contract, it would heat up, causing the outermost layer to expand. At this stage of the process, the star is now known as a red giant. Afterwards, the core would be so hot that it began fusing helium into carbon. Once the helium ran out, the core would expand then cool down. Again, the upper layers would expand and formed a planetary nebula. Finally, the core cooled down and became a white dwarf, which it eventually became a black

Our galaxy, The Milky Way, is composed of billion of stars of all ages, sizes and masses. A common stars, like our Sun, constantly gives out small amounts of X-ray radiation, and larger burst of X-rays during a solar flare. Along with our Sun, stars shine as a result of nuclear reaction that happens deep within their core. Causing chemical reactions that converts light elements into heavier ones and while releasing energy in the process. Energy from the central region provides pressure to keep the star from falling apart under its own weight. The contracting cloud is then called a protostar. A protostar is the earliest stage of a star’s life. A star is born when the gas and dust from a nebula become so hot that nuclear fusion starts. Once a star has “turned on” it is known as a main sequence star. When a main sequence star begins to run out of hydrogen fuel, the star becomes a red giant or a red supergiant.

Main sequence stars like our own sun enduring in a state of nuclear fusion during which they will produce energy for billions of years by replacing hydrogen to helium. Stars change over billions of years. When their main sequence phase ends they pass through other states of existence according to their size and other characteristics. The larger a star's mass, the shorter its lifespan is. As stars move toward the end of their lives, much of their hydrogen will be converted to helium. Helium sinks to the star's core and raises the star's temperature—causing its outer shell to expand. These large, puffy stars are known as Red Giants. The red giant phase is actually a prelude to a star shedding its outer layers and becoming a small, dense body called a White Dwarf. White dwarfs cool down for billions and billions of years, until they finally go dark and produce no energy at all. Once this happens, scientists have yet to observe, such stars become known as Black Dwarfs. A few stars avoid this evolutionary path and instead go out with a bang, exploding as Supernovae. These violent explosions leave behind a small core that will then turn into something called a Neutron Star or even, if the remainder is large enough, it is then turned into something called a Black Hole.