Beverly Garland
Nellie Austin
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What is the first stage of a star's life cycle?
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What is the life cycle of a star?
What happens in the second stage of a star's life cycle?
- A Giant Gas Cloud. A star begins life as a large cloud of gas. The temperature inside the cloud is low enough for molecules to form. Some of the molecules, such as hydrogen, light up and allow astronomers to see them in space.
- A Protostar Is a Baby Star. As the gas particles in the molecular cloud run into each other, heat energy is created, which allows a warm clump of molecules to form in the gas cloud.
- The T-Tauri Phase. In the T-Tauri stage, a young star begins to produce strong winds, which push away the surrounding gas and molecules. This allows the forming star to become visible for the first time.
- Main Sequence Stars. Eventually, the young star reaches hydrostatic equilibrium, in which its gravity compression is balanced by its outward pressure, giving it a solid shape.
- Giant Gas Cloud/Nebula
- Protostar
- T-Tauri Phase
- Main Sequence
- Red Giant
- White Dwarf
- Black Dwarf
- Red Supergiant
- Supernova
- Neutron Star Or Black Hole
At the first stage of their lives, stars are formed by the gravitational collapse of giant clouds of dust and gas called Nebulae. This stage is the start of their life cycle.
A protostar is the result of the gravitational collapse of a nebula. It is the formative phase of a star. During this phase, the infant star strives to gain equilibrium between its internal forces and gravity. A Protostar starts very vastly. It can be billions of kilometers in diameter. It usually lasts for 100,000 years. During this period, the pr...
Before fusion begins, the protostar goes through a period called the T-Tauri phase. At this stage, the core temperatures are still too low for hydrogen fusion, so all the star energy comes from the gravitational forceonly. The star at this point is about the same size as a low or medium mass star. However, it is much brighter. This period can last ...
The Main Sequence signifies the portion of a star’s life where its core is capable of hydrogen fusion. 90% of a star’s life is spent in this stage. The stars in the Main Sequence are of many different masses, colors, and brightness. The amount of time a star spends on the Main Sequence depends directly upon its mass. average stars like the Sun stay...
When a star has fused all the hydrogen in its core, its nuclear radiation output ceases. As a result, the star once again starts collapsing due to gravity. The energy generated by this collapse heats the core enough that the hydrogen in the surrounding stellar atmosphere can be burnt. This process causes the star’s outer layers to expand and cool d...
Once the star’s outer layers are shed, only a tiny core comprising primarily carbon and oxygen remains. The star is called a White Dwarf. Here, the mass of an entire stellar core is condensed into a body roughly the size of the Earth. Such a small size is possible due to the pressure exerted by the fast-moving electrons. This fate is only for those...
Black dwarfs are the final stage in the life of a low to medium mass star. They are the remnants of white dwarfs, formed due to the gradual cooling and dimming as they burn their remaining fuel. Eventually, they will exhaust their fuel and keep dimming until they are no longer visible to us. This process takes such a long time that no black dwarfs ...
For stars with a mass 8-9 times that of the Sun, the core temperatures become so high that nuclear fusion can occur even after the helium is exhausted. They can swell up to truly spectacular sizes; for example, Betelgeuse, a red supergiant and the tenth brightest star in the sky, is so massive that if it were in the Sun’s place, it would stretch ti...
The moment the core of a supergiant star turns to iron, it has reached the end of its life. The star collapses instantly under the enormous gravity exerted on its heavy iron core. The core shrinks from around 5000 miles across to just a couple dozen in a matter of seconds, and the temperatures can reach 100 billion K. This collapse triggers an incr...
After a supernova explosion, all that remains of the star is its core. What happens to this core depends on its mass. a) Neutron Star:If the collapsing core is of 1.4-3 solar masses, it forms a Neutron Star. A neutron star is a highly dense, heavy, and trim body comprised of neutrally charged neutrons. The force of gravity on the collapsing core is...
stellar evolution. Throughout the Milky Way Galaxy (and even near the Sun itself), astronomers have discovered stars that are well evolved or even approaching extinction, or both, as well as occasional stars that must be very young or still in the process of formation.
Stars populate the universe with elements through their “lifecycle”—an ongoing process of formation, burning fuel, and dispersal of material when all the fuel is used up. Different stars take different paths, however, depending on how much matter they contain—their mass.
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Jan 15, 2023 · Stage 1: A Giant Cloud of Gas. Above: The Helix Nebula, located 700 lightyears away from Earth. Image Credit: NASA. Stars begin their life cycles as clouds of gas and dust within a vast expanse of stellar debris called a nebula, formed from the gas and dust expelled by the explosion of a dying massive star.
NASA/SDO. Astronomers call stars that are stably undergoing nuclear fusion of hydrogen into helium main sequence star s. This is the longest phase of a star’s life. The star’s luminosity, size, and temperature will slowly change over millions or billions of years during this phase. Our Sun is roughly midway through its main sequence stage.
