How do stars form?
Stars form in dark clouds of dusty gas in interstellar space. The gas between the stars called the interstellar medium. Gravity can create stars only if it can overcome the force of thermal pressure in a cloud. Also, gravity within contracting gas cloud becomes stronger as the gas becomes denser.
How massive are newborn stars?
A cluster of many stars can form out of a single cloud. They very massive stars and are rare. Also, low mass stars are common.
What are the life stages of a low-mass star?
A star remains in the main sequence as long as it can fuse hydrogen into helium in its core. The Life track after main sequence is observations of stars cluster show that a star become larger redder and more luminous after its time on the main sequence is over.
How does a low-mass star die?
Double shell fusion, which is; after core helium fusion stops, He fuses into carbon in a shell around the carbon core, and H fuses to He in a shell around the helium layer. This double shell fusion stage never reaches equilibrium the fusion trade periodically spikes.
What are the life stages of a high-mass star?
A high mass star lives a much shorter life than a low mass star, fusing hydrogen into helium via the CNO cycle. After exhausting its core hydrogen , high mass star begins hydrogen shell fusion and then goes through a series fusing successively heavier elements. The furious rate of this fusion makes the star swell in size to become supergiant.
How do high-mass stars make the elements necessary for life?
in its final stages of life, a high mass stars core becomes hot enough to fuse carbon and other heavy elements. the variety if different fusion reactions produces a wide range of elements-including all the elements necessary for life- that are then released into space when that stars dies.
How does a high-mass star die?
A high mass star dies in a cataclysmic explosion called supernova, scattering newly produced elements into space and leaving behind a neutron star or black hole. The supernova occurs after fusion begins to pile up iron in the high mass star's core.Because iron fusion cannot release energy, the core cannot hold off the crush of gravity for long. In the instant that gravity overcomes degeneracy pressure, the core collapses and the star explodes.
How does a star's mass determine the life story?
A star's mass determines how it lives its life. Low-mass stars never get hot enough to fuse carbon or heavier elements in their cores and end their lives by expelling their outer layers and leaving white dwarfs behind. High-mass stars live short but brilliant lives, ultimately dying in supernova explosions.
How are the lives of stars with close companions different?
When one star in a close binary system begins to swell in size at the end of its main-sequence stage, it can begin to transfer mass to its companion. This mass exchange can then change the remaining life histories of both stars.
Amber Reed
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