Life Cycle of a Star Flashcards
the first stage in every star’s life.
nebula
the second stage in every star’s life, gravity pulls gases and dust together and nuclear fusion start.
protostar
the third stage in every star’s life, the star is in its middle age, around 6 billion years old. 90% of a star’s life is in this stage.
main sequence star
the fourth stage in a low mass star’s life, after the star has used up all it’s hydrogen, it starts to cool and expand in an effort to start fusing helium atoms.
red giant
the fourth stage in a high-mass star, it is very similar to the red giant but it expands faster, lasts longer, and gets bigger than the red giant.
red super giant
the sixth stage in a low-mass star’s life, the remains of the red giant is a glowing ball of gas about the size of earth. nuclear fusion has stopped and the gas begins to cool
white dwarf
the seventh stage of a low-mass star, the gases have stopped glowing and all that remains is a dark piece of space rock, our sun will end its life like this.
black dwarf
the fifth stage in a high-mass star’s life, after the red super giant expands it collapses in its self so rapidly that when it is done it explodes outwards.
supernova
exerts such a gravitational pull that no light can escape.
black hole
the other way a high-mass star can end up. this is a star so dense that one tablespoon would weigh as much as 10 suns! they spin so fast and move like black holes, but we can see them. but there is no way we could defend ourselves from this stage or a black hole, if they were to crash into us we would be dead.
neutron star
a large cloud of gas and dust in space.
nebula
a left over center of an old star.
white dwarf
the last stage, no light, it is dead.
black dwarf
a giant explosion.
supernova
a product of a supernova that is made out of neutrons.
neutron star
