lifecycle of stars Flashcards
What colour are hot big stars
Blue
What colour are small cool stars
Reddd
What colour are medium-sized stars like our sun
yellooww
Whats a main sequence star
A mature star in the first stage after birth
What is a determining factor of a star
Size Contrary to popular belief size does matter.
Describe a brown dwarf.
Star too small for fusion to even begin. Brown Dwrafs die away, cooling down gradually over hundreds of millions of years, like an ice cream.
Describe a Red dwarf
When a small star has used up its hydrogen, it becomes a red dwarf. As the nuclear reactions stop the outer layers collapse inward into the core due to its own gravity. Basically suicide. It glows red first and then shows weaker infra-red and microwave radiation for billions of years before cooling down!
Describe a Red giant and white dwarf.
When a medium-sized star uses up its hydrogen fuel, the collapsed outer layers produce pressure generating heat in the core to trigger a fusion of helium and carbon atoms. The core then gets so hot (Ik its all about the core yk), and the outer layers expand like a balloon to form a red giant. When there is not enough gravity to cause any further collapses of the core the nuclear reactions stawp! Then the star gets all shy and becomes a small dense white dwarf. It’ll RADIATE the remaining energy for many million years as it cools.
Describe a supergiant, neutron star and supernova
When a big star burns a lot of its helium, it expands like Aunt Marge to form a supergiant! The enormous gravity makes it so hot that nuclear fusion can proceed much further in ordinary giant stars. The remaining core is so massive it collapses under its own weight. WEAK! The explosion is a supernova. The atoms go inwards forming neutrons leading to a dense neutron star. Supernova takes years to fade but eventually, the dust and stuff become parts of new solar systems.
Pulsars??
Neutron stars density makes a strong magnetic field that the radiation beams in two directions along the magnetic axis. Most pulsars emit radio waves but few emit light or X-rays
BLACK HOLES Whipeeee
So if gravity and density is futher then a neutron star it forms a black hole. Centre of black hole is so extremely dense that its gravity is irresistible. It distorts the space around it and gets pulled in. Even light can’t escape it. Anything sucked in is subjected to immense pressure that the heat produced causes it to emit X-rays!
R u a black hole? Cause i wanna get lost in u
