Stellar Evolution

Nate Childers
Hart Middle School
Rochester, Michigan
1. Stellar Evolution E5.2x
Stars, including the Sun, transform matter into energy in nuclear reactions. When
hydrogen nuclei fuse to form helium, a small amount of matter is converted to
energy. These and other processes in stars have led to the formation of all the
other chemical elements. There is a wide range of stellar objects of different sizes
and temperatures. Stars have varying life histories based on these parameters.

2. Narrative:
Like humans, stars pass through different stages in their lives. They are born, they mature
and, eventually, they die. However, unlike humans, the typical star may last for millions or
billions of years. While we cannot witness the complete life cycle of any one star, the night
sky does reveal stars in various stages of stellar development. In some ways we’ve got a
time machine that enables us to look back and out into the future. In so doing we can
glimpse aspects of our own star’s past and destiny.

Like all stars, our Sun was formed from a cloud of hydrogen gas and dust that almost
certainly included the ashes from an earlier star gone supernova. In its death throes, it
created elements heavier than iron that our solar system inherited. Gravity pulled the cloud
together into a giant ball. When enough gas and dust had gathered, enormous pressures at
the center forced hydrogen atoms to begin fusing into helium, thereby releasing energy and
raising the temperature at the core to over 15 million degrees. Another star was born, and
the Sun began to glow.

The birth of all stars is much like that of the Sun, but the mass of the gas and dust
comprising the star will determine its precise destiny. Medium-sized stars like our Sun
eventually use up their hydrogen fuel, cool and expand into red giants. Later they shed their
outer layers and appear as a diffuse cloud called a planetary nebula (which, confusingly, has
nothing to do with planets!), lose more gas, shrink down to become white dwarf stars, and
eventually even smaller stellar corpses called black dwarfs. At this stage they may be only a
few thousand miles in diameter.

In general, the smaller the mass of a star, the longer its life. Our Sun is now near the mid-
point of its estimated 10 billion year life. Stars that are many times more massive than our
Sun experience dramatic and sometimes explosive endings. Following the red giant stage
they may continue to expand into supergiants. The core then shrinks and grows hotter and
denser. Eventually internal forces erupt to cause the star to explode as a supernova. The
stellar remnants become either extremely dense neutron stars or mysterious black holes,
objects with such a strong gravitational pull that not even light can escape. Matter ejected
from a supernova is blown out into interstellar space and may enter a kind of cosmic
recycling program, seeding new solar systems of stars, planets, and moons with the gold
and iron of the earlier generation of stars.

Stars come in several colors—red, orange, yellow, white and blue. The color of a star offers
us a clue to its surface temperature. Red stars are the coolest and blue stars are the
hottest. Our Sun is classified as a medium-sized, yellow dwarf star. Astronomers use star
color and actual brightness to determine the stage in a star’s life cycle.

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3. Activity Title: Comparing Star Color
Content Expectation:
E5.2f Explain how you can infer the temperature, life span, and mass
of a star from its color. Use the H-R diagram to explain the life cycle of
stars.

4. Question to be Investigated:
Why do some stars appear reddish, some white, and some bluish white?

5. Activity Description:
1)Have student groups look at pictures of various stars from
http://nix.ksc.nasa.gov/info;jsessionid=wrqwwqpiam3k?id=GL-2002-
001195&orgid=6,and have them create a list of similarities and differences of the
stars.
2) Show students the images from “The Size of Our World” to introduce the
differences in size between stars.
3) Have students form a hypothesis about how the colors emitted from a glowing
object relate to the object’s temperature.
4) Set up a lamp with an unfrosted light bulb plugged into a dimmer switch.
5) Darken the room.
6) Turn on the lamp and dim it until it is just barely on.
7) Ask students to observe and note the color of the glowing filament in the bulb.
8) Slowly turn up the bulb so it gets brighter and brighter.
9) Have students observe and note the changing color of the glowing lamp filament.
10) Next, give each group of students a candle in a small tin pan. Have students
light a candle and observe the flame.
11) In groups, have the students discuss and note the different colors observed in the
flame.
12)As a class, discuss the different colors observed.
13) Have students look back over the star pictures and discuss the differences they
see now, and how the color of the star relates to the temperature.
14) Have students create a graph, using the Star Comparison Chart, of the stars color
versus their temperature. They should observe a clear relationship.
15)In groups, have students discuss the relationship that exists between stars color,
temperature, mass, and power.
16) Have students write a reflection on the activity describing the relationship
between color and temperature, mass and power of stars.

6. Teacher Notes
Additional Information:
Many students think of something very hot as being “red hot.” They seldom
think of blue as being a “hot” color. With the lamp turned down to a
minimum, the filament glows a dim red color. The filament glows because it
is hot, but it can get much hotter and glow much more brightly. As the lamp
is turned up the filament receives more power. It gets hotter and glows
brighter. Its color progresses from dim red to orange to yellow to white. As it
gets hotter it glows brighter. There is a relationship between the temperature

2
 and the color of the glowing filament. If the filament could be made to glow
even hotter, it would progress from white to blue in color.

Many students have seen the color progression from red through yellow to
blue in the flame of a camp fire. The cool flame is red or orange and the
hottest flame is blue. Explain that the color of the flame near the wick of the
candle is bluish in color and hottest in temperature. The outside edge of the
flame is yellow or red and is the coolest part of the flame. The same color
progression holds true for stars. Scientists use color to help determine the
temperature of a star. The coolest stars at 3,000 degrees Celsius glow red.
The hottest stars have surface temperatures in the tens of thousands of
degrees and glow with a fierce blue light. Such stars are extremely bright,
powerful, and easy to see at great distances.

The white and blue stars burn their fuel at the highest temperatures. They
produce the most energy and so they are the most powerful stars. These
stars are also the biggest stars.

The bigger a star is, the more mass it has. More mass means the star
presses in on itself more strongly. It gets hotter in the core than a smaller
star, so it burns faster and at a much higher temperature. Because it burns
hotter it also gives off more energy than a smaller, cooler star.

Safety Concerns
Do not touch the light bulb, the light bulb will become very hot.

Care should be taken when using matches. Students should wear safety
goggles and be reminded of fire safety in the classroom.

7. Graphs, Charts, Illustrations:

Star Comparison Chart
Star Color Temperature Mass in terms Power in Suns
(˚C) of Solar Mass
Sun Yellow 5,700 1 1
Proxima Centauri Red 2,300 0.1 Unknown
Barnard’s Star Red 3,000 0.1 0.01
Epsilon Eridani Orange 4,600 0.1 0.4
Alpha Centauri Yellow 6,000 1 2
Altair White 8,000 3 12
Vega White 9,900 3 61
Sirius White 10,000 3 27
Rigel White 10,000 3 52,000
Regulus White 11,000 8 221
Hadar Blue 25,500 20 79,000
Alnilam Blue 27,000 20 112,000

8. Credits and Sources

• Starry Night; The Stars; www.starrynight.com

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 E5.2x

1. Title: Magnitude and the H-R Diagram

Content Expectations:
E5.2e Explain how the Hertzsprung-Russell (H-R) diagram can be
used to deduce other parameters (distance).

E5.2hCompare the evolution paths of low, moderate and high mass

stars using the H-R diagram.

2. Question to be investigated:
How are stars classified and placed on the Hertzsprung-Russell diagram?

3. Activity Description:
1) Have students form a hypothesis about why some stars appear brighter than
others.
2) Hand students the investigation called “Magnitude and the HR Diagram.”
3) Review the concepts of apparent magnitude versus absolute magnitude.
4) Have students complete the investigation.
5) Discuss the resulting chart with the class.
• Describe the general trend between temperature and brightness.
• What is the color and brightness of the most abundant stars? The
rarest stars?
• What are the characteristics of the stars that do not conform to the
graph’s trend?
• In terms of the graph’s trend, is our sun typical or exceptional?
• If you replaced the temperature scale on the graph’s x-axis with a
color scale, which color would be closest to the graph’s origin and
which would farthest away?
• In the stars that fit the general trend (these are often called Main
Sequence stars), what relationship do you notice between color and
expected lifetime?
6) Students should complete the Classified Stars activity.

4. Teacher Notes
Additional Information:
* Stellar Magnitude
For historical reasons, astronomers still call the brightest stars magnitude 1
stars, the next brightest 2, then 3, 4, 5, and on down to the dimmest stars,
magnitude 6 stars. This backwards scale is now defined as mathematically as:

brightness of star 1 = difference in magnitude

brightness of star 2 (2.512)

Using this sort of scale, we can actually describe the brightness of stars in
real numbers. Really bright objects, like the full moon have a negative
magnitude.

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 Apparent
Object
Magnitude
Sun -26.5
Full Moon -12.5
Venus -4.1
Sirius -1.4
North Star 2.0
limit of naked
6
eye
Pluto 15
limit of HST 28

** Spectral Classes
Stars are easily classified by the amount of hydrogen which they
contain as revealed to us by the intensity of their spectrum. Stars with
the most hydrogen are called A stars, the remaining letters designate
varying amounts of different chemical stellar compositions.
If we consider the temperature of stars, as revealed to us by their
color, we find that the O stars, are hottest, followed by B stars, A
stars, F, G, K, and M stars. A star which has an intermediate
temperature between an O star and a B star is called an O5 star. This
layout of temperature is given from hottest to coolest as:

O0, O1, O2, O3, O4, O5, O6, O7, O8, O9, B0, B2, B3, B4, B5, B6......

Astronomers sometimes humorously teach their students to remember

this sequence from hottest to coolest as:

O h, b e a f ine g uy (or gal), k iss m e!

Our Sun is G2 star, which means that it is a rather intermediate

temperature

The Hertzsprung - Russell diagram is a graphical tool that astronomers

use to classify stars according to their luminosity, spectral type, color,
temperature and evolutionary stage.

Stars in the stable phase of hydrogen burning lie along the Main
Sequence according to their mass. After a star uses up all the
hydrogen in its core, it leaves the main sequence and moves towards
the red giant branch. The most massive stars may also become red
super giants, in the upper right corner of the diagram. The lower left
corner is reserved for the white dwarfs.

5
 Web-Sites
Stellar Encounters:
http://amazing-
space.stsci.edu/resources/explorations/light/stellarEncounters-frames.html

Pearson Tutorials
http://media.pearsoncmg.com/bc/bc_bennett_cosmicpers_2/medialib/tutorial
s/index.html

Astrobiology an Integrated Approach

http://astrobio.terc.edu/samples/chpt2_act3.html

Interpretting the H-R Diagram

http://www.smv.org/jims/l6a.htm

Hertzsprung-Russell Diagram Interactive Lab

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

5. Credits and Sources

• Magnitude and the HR Diagram:

http://www.westosha.k12.wi.us/Departments/Science/Pollard/EarthScienc
e/H-R%20diagram%20and%20magnitude%20activity.htmCornell
• Astronomy; Hertzsprung – Russell diagram;
http://www.astro.cornell.edu/academics/courses/astro201/hr_diagram.ht
m
• Montana State University Solar Physics; Life Line of Stars;
http://solar.physics.montana.edu/tslater/plunger/hr_diag2.htm

6
 Name ___________________
Magnitude and the H-R Diagram Date _______________
Hour ______

Background:
There are essentially two ways to describe the brightness of stars; apparent
magnitude and absolute magnitude. Apparent magnitude is the brightness of a
star as seen from Earth; absolute magnitude is how bright a star would be if it
were 32.6 light years away (10 parsecs). For historical reasons, astronomers still
call the brightest stars magnitude 1 stars, the next brightest 2, then 3, 4, 5, and on
down to the dimmest naked-eye stars, magnitude 6 stars. Using this sort of scale,
we can describe the brightness of stars in real numbers. Really bright objects, like
the full moon have a negative magnitude, because they are brighter than a
magnitude 1 star. In other words, the brighter an object is, the smaller its
magnitude.

Object apparent magnitude

Sun -26.5
Full Moon -12.5
Venus -4.1 The brighter an object
Sirius -1.4
North Star 2.0
is, the smaller its
limit of naked eye 6 magnitude.
Pluto 15
limit of HST 28

Astronomers also classify stars by their type of spectrum. Stars are easily
classified by the amount of hydrogen that they contain as revealed to us by the
intensity of their spectrum. Stars with the most hydrogen are called “A” stars, the
remaining letters designate varying amounts of different chemical stellar
compositions.

If we consider the temperature of stars, as revealed to us by their color, we find

that the O stars, are hottest, followed by B stars, A stars, F, G, K, and M stars. A
star whose temperature is exactly between an O star and a B star is considered an
O5 star. This layout of temperature is given from hottest to coolest as:
O0, O1, O2, O3, O4, O5, O6, O7, O8, O9, B0, B2, B3, B4, B5, B6......
Our Sun is G2 star, which means that it is a rather intermediate temperature star.

Procedure:

1. Plot the top 20 Near Stars on the HR Diagram.

2. Plot the top 20 Bright Stars on the HR Diagram using a different color.

IF ANY OF THE STARS APPEAR IN THE SAME LOCATION ON THE GRAPH,

DRAW A DOT IN THE COLOR FOR NEAR STARS, THEN DRAW A CIRCLE
AROUND IT IN THE SECOND COLOR FOR BRIGHT STARS.

3. Complete the questions that follow.

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 Table 1 Bright Stars
(Stars which appear very bright from

Spectral Absolute Spectral Absolute

Star Name Star Name
Class Magnitude Class Magnitude
1. Sirius A A1 +1.4 19. Aldebaran A K5 -0.2
2. Sirius B B8 +11.5 20. Aldebaran B M2 +12
3. Canopus F0 -3.1 21. Crucis A B1 -4.0
4. Centaurus A G2 +4.4 22. Crucis B B3 -3.5
5. Centaurus B K5 +5.8 23. Antares A M1 -4.5
6. Arcturus K2 -0.3 24. Antares B B4 -0.3
7. Vega A0 +0.5 25. Spica B1 -3.6
8. Capella A G0 -0.7 26. Pollux K0 +.08
9. Capella B M0 +9.5 27. Fomalhaut A A3 +2.0
10. Capella C M5 +13.0 28. Fomalhaut B K4 +7.3
11. Rigel A B8 -6.8 29. Deneb A2 -6.9
12. Rigel B B9 -0.4 30. Beta Crucis B0 -4.6
13. Procyon A F5 +2.7 31. Regulus B7 -0.7
14. Procyon B F0 +13.0 32. Adhara B2 -5.0
15. Achernar B5 -1.0 33. Castor A A1 +2.1
16. Beta Centari B1 -4.1 34. Castor B A5 +2.9
17. Betelgeuse M2 -5.5 35. Castor C K6 +8.8
18. Altair A7 +2.2 36. Shaula B1 -3.3
- - - 37. Bellatrix B2 -4.2
Table 2 Near Stars
(Stars which are close to the Earth)
Spectral Absolute Spectral Absolute
Star Name Star Name
Class Magnitude Class Magnitude
1. Sun G2 +4.8 16. Procyon A F5 +2.7
2. Centari A G2 +4.4 17. Procyon B F0 +13.0
3. Centari B K5 +5.8 18. Struve 2398 M4 +11.1
4. Centari C M5 +15.0 19. Struve 23948 M5 +11.9
5. Lalande 21185 M2 +10.5 20. Groom 34 A M1 +10.5
6. Sirius A A1 +1.4 21. Groom 34 B M6 +13.2
7. Sirius B B8 +11.5 22. Lacaille 9352 M2 +9.6
8. Ross 154 M4 +13.3 23. Tau Ceti G8 +5.7
9. Ross 248 M5 +14.7 24. BD +5 1668 M4 +11.9
10 Epsilon Eridani K2 +6.1 25. Lacaille 8760 M0 +8.7
11. Luyten M5 +14.7 26. Kapteyn's Star M0 +8.7
12. Ross 128 M5 +13.8 27. Krueger 60 A M3 +11.8
13. 61 Cygnus A K5 +7.5 28. Krueger 60 B M4 +13.4
15 61 Cygnus B K7 +8.3 29. Ross 614 M5 +13.1
15. Epsilon Indi K5 +7.0 30. BD -12 4523 M4 +12.0

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9
 E5.2x

Analysis Questions:
1. Our star, the Sun, is a G2 spectral class star with an absolute magnitude of
4.8 . How do its temperature and absolute magnitude compare to the
other Near Stars on the diagram?
_____________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________

2. How do the Sun’s temperature and absolute magnitude compare to the

other Bright Stars on the diagram?
_____________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________

3. Which spectral class is most common? _________________________

4. Which spectral class is the least common? _________________________

5. In general, does there seem to be a relationship between the temperature of

a star and its brightness? Explain your answer….
_____________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________

6. Most of the stars seem to be along a line from the upper left corner to the
lower right corner of the HR Diagram. Stars which fall into this category of
stars are called main sequence stars . Does our Sun fit into this category?
If so, in what location compared to the other main sequence stars?
_____________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________

7. Consider the stars in the upper right hand corner and the lower left hand
corner. What type of stars are the bright, cool stars? What type of stars are
the hot, dim stars?
_____________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________

8. Stars which are "on the main sequence" are generally very stable stars which
are combining their hydrogen atoms into larger helium atoms (this reaction is
called fusion and gives off energy). Where in the star do you think that this
fusion reaction is most likely occurring?
_____________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________

9. Why do you think black holes do not appear on the HR Diagram?

_____________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________

10.What do you think might occur when a star depletes its supply of hydrogen?
What will it use as fuel instead?
_____________________________________________________________

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 E5.2x

Classified Stars
Background Information

At the beginning of the 1900's, two astronomers, Danish Ejnar Hertzsprung and American Henry
Russell, determined a pattern in the life of stars. They arranged stars on a chart according to their
color and brightness. The most amazing thing is that they did not even know one other, and did
their experiments completely independent of each other. Therefore, this chart is called the
Hertzsprung-Russell (HR) diagram.

The diagram shows you how the sizes and colors of

stars change with brightness and temperatures. The
largest stars in the galaxy are found near the top; the
smallest stars near the bottom. The bluest stars
appear on the left, and the reddest stars on the right.
The stars that appear near the top of the chart are the
brightest and those toward the bottom are the
faintest. The hottest stars are plotted at the far left
and the coolest stars appear at the far right. Of
course, this diagram does not show how the stars
would appear to you while gazing into the night sky.
The absolute magnitude and luminosity are used for
that. They give you the relative brightness based on
all of the stars being the same distance away from
the earth.

On this diagram, you do not see all of the

individual stars. Since there are so many
stars, only a few were actually scattered
around and along each of the areas that you see. The four major star types
are white dwarf, main sequence, giant, and supergiant, but there are many
groups of stars that fit within each type. Each star is also classified by its
spectral class. Each star has a unique composition, and this can be seen in
its spectral class. The different spectral classes are OBAFGKM, where O are
the bright, hot, blue stars, and M are the dim, cold, red stars.

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 E5.2x

Procedure

1. Below is an HR-diagram.

2. Answer the following questions:

a. What color would an M class star be?
b. If a star has a temperature of 3,700 Kelvin and a luminosity of
0.1, what is its spectral class?
c. If a star has an absolute magnitude of +5, what is (are) the
possible spectral class (classes)?
d. What range of absolute magnitudes would you expect a
supergiant star to be?
e. If you were to look at the sky at night, what type of star would
you most likely see? To help answer this, draw a line through the
pattern of the main sequence stars. Draw a circle around all of
the white dwarf, supergiant and giant stars. When completed,
you should have one wavy line and three ellipses (ovals).
f. Our sun has a spectral class of G. What are the temperature,
luminosity and magnitude ranges for our sun?
g. If available, shade in the main sequence stars with the
appropriate color. Otherwise, put an R (red), O (orange), Y
(yellow), G (green), and B (blue) along the line you drew for
question e.

http://www.nasaexplores.com/show_912_student_st.php?id=050201160919

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 E5.2x

Title: Life Cycles of Stars

Content Expectations:
E5.2e Explain how the Hertzsprung-Russell (H-R) diagram can be
used to deduce other parameters (distance).

E5.2f Explain how you can infer the temperature, life span, and mass
of a star from its color. Use the H-R diagram to explain the life cycle of
stars.

E5.2h Compare the evolution paths of low, moderate and high mass
stars using the H-R diagram.

1. Question to be investigated:
How do stars change throughout their life and change position on the
Hertzsprung - Russell diagram?

2. Activity Description:
1) Place one wooden bead inside each of 12 red balloons, and 12 yellow
balloons.
2) Place a marble inside each of 4 white balloons.
3) Place one ball bearing inside each of 2 blue balloons.
4) Begin by introducing the ways in which stars come into being and produce
energy.
5) Ask if all stars are the same, and ask students to help make a list of things
that might vary between stars: mass, color, heat. Make sure to include "life
cycle."
6) Ask if students know how black holes form (answer: they form when certain
kinds of stars die). Ask how often students think that black holes form, and if
they believe our Sun will form a black hole. Don't forget to ask them to
explain the reasons behind their ideas! This information will be helpful to you
in determining how best to structure your questions through the rest of the
lesson.
7) State that the class will do an activity that illustrates how all of these
differences in stars' characteristics are related, and will show when, and how
often, black holes form.
8) Pass out balloons, distributing different colors, one balloon per student. You
should have significantly more red and yellow balloons than blue and white,
roughly 80% red and yellow, 15% white, and 5% blue. Explain that the
property that causes the main differences between stars is mass. As you pass
out balloons, tell students the approximate mass of their star. (Refer to the
Life Cycle of Stars Information Chart)
9) Ask students which balloons they think represent the hottest stars. Point out
that actually red stars are the coolest, and blue stars are the hottest. Ask
what color our Sun is (yellow).
10)Ask which color star students believe will live longest, and why.
11)Guide students through the following series of steps. For each age, tell
students what to do for their color of balloon. To help students follow the
progression, you might write different stages on a board or overhead as you

13
 E5.2x

move on, and note important events. Also, ask students to make predictions
as you work.
12)As stars “die” have the students that represented those stars summarize their
life cycle.
13)After all stars are "dead," review the sequence you have just covered. Point
out which stars died first, which last.
14)Point out the fate of the yellow stars like our Sun. Note that they live quite a
long time and don't become either black holes or neutron stars.
15)Point out that black holes are the rarest type of stars in our group.
16)Have students complete the interactive lab at http://aspire.cosmic-
ray.org/labs/star_life/starlife_main.html
17)Finally, have students pretend they are a type of star (blue supergiant , sun-
like star, red dwarf) and write an autobiography. They should describe their
life cycle from formation to death with illustrations and trace their path on the
HR diagram.

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 E5.2x

Life Cycle of Stars Information Chart

Red Balloons Yellow Balloons White Balloons Blue Balloons
Mass 0.4 Solar Mass (2/5 the 1 Solar Mass (the mass of 3 Solar Masses (3 times 9 Solar Masses (9 times
of mass of our Sun): Red our Sun): Yellow Stars the mass of our Sun): the mass of our Sun):
Star stars White Stars Blue Stars
→
Age
of
Star
↓
(start) Blow up the star to about Blow up the star to about Blow up the star to about Blow up the star to about
3" diameter 3" diameter 3" diameter 3" diameter
5 Wait. Do not change Wait. Do not change Wait. Do not change Blow slightly more air into
Million diameter of balloon. diameter of balloon. diameter of balloon. balloon.
Years
10 Wait Wait Blow up a little more Blow up star as fast and
Million as much as you can.
Years When star is fully inflated,
teacher pops balloon--a
supernova.
500 Wait Wait (note that planets Continue to slowly inflate This popped star has
Million are forming) star. As it gets bigger, become a black hole; all
Years star cools, so color it of the super nova
yellow and red (make remnants can be thrown
squiggles on surface with out into space.
markers).
1 Wait Blow up a little bit. Quickly blow up star until Still black hole!
Billion fully inflated; pop
Years balloon. Make sure to
catch marble
8 Wait. Blow up more. The star is This star has exploded. Still black hole
Billion getting cooler, so color it Holding on to neutron
Years red with marker. It is now star (marble), throw
a supergiant. supernova remnants into
space. Place remnants in
a recycle bin to
demonstrate stellar gas is
recycled into new star
matter.
10 Wait Blow up a little more. Neutron star Still black hole
Billion Outer envelope dissolves,
Years so cut up balloon. The
inside bead becomes a
white dwarf, and the bits
of balloon represent the
planetary nebula.
50 Blow up a little more Move "planetary nebula" Neutron star Still black hole
billion farther away. Place
years remnants in a recycle bin.

200 Deflate; star has shrunk Nebula is gone. Discuss Neutron star Still black hole
billion and died. Color black. that the white wooden
years Wooden bead inside is a bead turns black to show
white dwarf. that it has burned out.

15
 E5.2x

4. Teacher Notes
Additional Information:

Where are Stars Born?

Astronomers believe that molecular clouds, dense clouds of gas located primarily in the
spiral arms of galaxies are the birthplace of stars. Dense regions in the clouds collapse and
form 'protostars' so a star begins its life as a large and comparatively cool mass of gas. The
contraction of this gas and the subsequent rise of temperature continue until the interior
temperature of the star reaches a value of about 1,000,000°C (about 1,800,000°F).

At this point a nuclear reaction takes place in which the nuclei of hydrogen atoms combine
with heavy hydrogen deuterons (nuclei of so-called heavy hydrogen atoms) to form the
nucleus of the inert gas helium. The latter reaction liberates large amounts of nuclear
energy, and the further contraction of the star is halted. Once the star has started nuclear
fusion, it becomes a 'main sequence' star.

Main Sequence Stars

Main sequence stars are stars, like our Sun, that burn hydrogen to helium in their cores. For
a given chemical composition and stellar age, a stars' luminosity, the total energy radiated
by the star per unit time, depends only on its mass. Stars that are ten times more massive
than the Sun are over a thousand times more luminous than the Sun. However, we should
not be too embarrassed by the Sun's low luminosity: it is ten times brighter than a star half
its mass. The more massive a main sequence star, the brighter and bluer it is.

For example, Sirius – the dog star, located to the lower left of the constellation Orion, is
more massive than the Sun, and is noticeably bluer. On the other hand, Alpha Centauri, our
nearest neighbour, is less massive than the Sun, and is thus redder and less luminous.

Since stars have a limited supply of hydrogen in their cores, they have a limited lifetime as
main sequence stars. This lifetime is proportional to f M / L, where f is the fraction of the
total mass of the star, M, available for nuclear fusion in the core and L is the average
luminosity of the star during its main sequence lifetime. Because of the strong dependence
of luminosity on mass, stellar lifetimes depend sensitively on mass. Thus, it is fortunate that
our Sun is not more massive than it is since high mass stars rapidly exhaust their core
hydrogen supply.

Once a star exhausts its core hydrogen supply, the star becomes redder, larger, and more
luminous: it becomes a red giant star. This relationship between mass and lifetime enables
astronomers to put a lower limit on the age of the universe.

Death of an "Ordinary" Star

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After a low mass star like the Sun exhausts the supply of
hydrogen in its core, there is no longer any source of heat to
support the core against gravity. The core of the star collapse
under gravity's pull until it reaches a high enough density to
start converting helium to carbon. Meanwhile, the stars' outer
envelope expands and the star evolves into a red giant. When
the Sun becomes a red giant, its atmosphere will envelope the
Earth and our planet will be consumed in a fiery death. The Sun
will eventually evolve into a red supergiant as it exhausts the
helium in its core. At this stage, it will have an outer envelope
extending out towards Jupiter. During this brief phase of its
existence, which last only a few tens of thousands of years, the Sun will lose mass in a
powerful wind.

Eventually, the Sun will lose all of the mass in its envelope and leave behind a hot core of
carbon imbedded in a nebula of expelled gas. Radiation from this hot core will ionise the
nebula produces a striking 'planetary nebula', much like the nebulas seen around the
remnants of other stars. The carbon core will eventually cool and become a white dwarf, the
dense dim remnant of a once bright star. The final fate of low-mass dwarfs is unknown,
except that they cease to radiate appreciably. Most likely they become burned-out cinders,
or black dwarfs.

Death of a Massive Star

Massive stars burn brighter and perish
more dramatically than most. When a
star ten times more massive then Sun
exhaust the helium in the core, the
nuclear fusion cycle continues. The
carbon core contracts further and
reaches high enough temperature to
burn carbon to oxygen, neon, silicon,
sulphur and finally to iron.

Iron is the most stable form of nuclear matter and there is no energy to be gained by
converting it to any heavier element. Without any source of heat to balance the gravity, the
iron core collapses until it reaches nuclear densities. This high density core resists further
collapse causing the in-falling matter to 'bounce' off the core.

This sudden core bounce (which includes the release of energetic neutrinos from the core)
produces a supernova explosion. For one brilliant month, a single star burns brighter than a
whole galaxy of a billion stars. Supernova explosions inject carbon, oxygen, silicon and
other heavy elements up to iron into interstellar space. They are also the site where most of
the elements heavier than iron are produced.

Future generations of stars formed from this heavy element enriched gas will therefore start
life with a richer supply of heavier elements than the earlier generations of stars. Without
supernova, the fiery death of massive stars, there would be no carbon, oxygen or other
elements that make life possible.

The fate of the hot neutron core depends upon the mass of the progenitor star. If the
progenitor mass is around ten times the mass of the Sun, the neutron star core will cool to
form a neutron star. Neutron stars are potentially detectable as ‘pulsars’, powerful beacons
of radio emission. A limit exists for the size of neutron stars, however, beyond which such

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stars are gravitationally bound to keep contracting until they become a black hole, from
which light radiation cannot escape.

If the progenitor mass is larger, then the resultant core is so heavy that not even nuclear
forces can resist the pull of gravity and the core collapses to form a black hole.

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Safety Concerns
Eye protection should be worn during the investigation. Flying debris from
the balloons could cause eye injuries.

Web-Sites
Life Cycles of Stars
http://imagine.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/teachers/lifecycles/LC_title.html

Chandra X-Ray Observatory: Stellar Evolution

http://chandra.harvard.edu/xray_sources/stellar_evolution.html

Cosmic Evolution an Interdisciplinary Approach

http://www.tufts.edu/as/wright_center/cosmic_evolution/docs/fr_1/fr_1_stel.
html

Life Cycle of a Star: Interactive Lab

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

Simulations
Stellar Evolution on the H-R Diagram
http://instruct1.cit.cornell.edu/courses/astro101/java/evolve/evolve.htm

6. Graphs, Charts, Illustrations:

ype1a_label.html

7. Credits and Sources

Alder Planetarium; Milky Way Galaxy Gallery;
http://www.adlerplanetarium.org/pub/MWGuide.pdf

Astronomy Today; Stellar Evolution – the lives of stars;

http://www.astronomytoday.com/cosmology/evol.html

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