THE LIFE CYCLE OF A STAR

OBJECTIVES
To describe the cycle life of different kinds of stars.

To understand what happens with a star when it dies.

Identify the mechanisms that regulates the cycle of the
stars.
To know the kinds of stars that exist.

THE BIRTH OF A STAR

All we are star dust
- Carl Sagan

WHERE IT ALL BEGINS

Stars are formed in nebulae. The gravitational
force acting on huge and dense regions of
nebulae causes the formation of rotating gas
globule. That after millions of years, it will
become in a star.

CG4: A Ruptured
Cometary Globule:
Is gas cloud known as a
cometary globule.
Globules are frequently
the birthplaces of stars,
and many show very
young stars in their
heads..

PHASES OF THE BIRTH OF STARS

The formation of a young star consists in:
Central Core and Proto planetary Disks:
The spinning action of collapsing causes an increase in
centrifugal forces. This increase causes the globule to have a
central core and a surrounding flattened disk of dust that,
eventually, will form planets, comets, etc.
Protostars:
Is formed by the contraction and heating of the spinning
gas cloud. This stage lasts for roughly 50 million years. If there
is enough material in the protostar, the gravitational collapse
and the heating continue.

 The New Born Star:

It is formed when the protostar reaches a temperature of

27x106 K. Then, nuclear fusion begins. This is the nuclear reaction
in which hydrogen atoms are converted to helium atoms plus
energy. This energy production prevents further contraction of the
star.
Young stars emit jets of intense radiation that heat the
surrounding matter to the point at which it glows brightly. These
jets may be focused by the star's magnetic field.
The protostar is now a stable main sequence star which
will remain in this state for about 10 billion years. After that, the
hydrogen fuel is depleted and the star begins to die.

Exaple of how an jet looks

like. These are trhee young
stars.

THE MATURE STARS AND THEIR DEATH

... star stuff contemplating star stuff ...
- Carl Sagan, Humankind.

For a collapsing mass of gas to become a star, nuclear

fusion has to initiate in its core. This requires a temperature of
106 K and this can only be reached when the contracting mass is
greater than 1029 kg, about 1/12 the mass of the Sun, or 80 times
that of Jupiter. So, the evolution and death of the star will depend
on its initial amount of mass.

Eventually, the new star that has born drains its supply of
hydrogen and the star begins to involve in the main sequence.
Without the outward pressure generated by the hydrogen fusion
to counteract the force of gravity, the core contracts enough until
either the protostar is too hot that helium fusion begins (reaching
10 K ) or the electron degeneracy becomes sufficient to oppose
gravity.
Stars are classified in this way:

LOW MASS STARS:

[ 0.05 0.5 SOLAR MASSES]
In stars of mass less than 0.5 solar masses there is simply
not enough pressure to give the temperatures that would allow
helium fusion to begin. Consequently, when nuclear fusion,
converting hydrogen to helium, finally ceases this might be after
6 trillion years the star will slowly collapse over a period of
several hundred billion years to form what is called a white dwarf.
Over many trillions of years, the white dwarf will cool
until its surface temperature is below that at which significant
light is emitted and the inert remnant will become a black dwarf.

MID MASS STARS:

[ 0.8 - ~8 SOLAR MASSES]
All stars in this range will have a common end state in the form of a
white dwarf. There is, however, a difference in the process of nuclear
fusion from hydrogen to Helium in stars above and below 2 solar
masses. For stars with mass less than 2 solar masses, like our Sun,
the bulk of their energy is produced by the protonproton cycle.
However, there is a more complex process called the carbon
nitrogenoxygen (CNO) cycle that provides 12% of the Suns total
energy output.
Thus, over time, the relative amount of nitrogen increases until
equilibrium is established. Whilst the total number of the carbon,
nitrogen and oxygen nuclei is conserved, nitrogen nuclei become the
most numerous, regardless of the initial composition. This process
produces essentially all of the nitrogen in the universe and thus has
great significance for us as nitrogen is an essential element of all lifeforms here on Earth.

HIGH MASS STARS:

[> 8 SOLAR MASSES]

Stars in this mass range have sufficient mass overlying

the core so that the temperature of the core can
increase beyond that in less massive stars. This allows
the capture of alpha particles to proceed further.
Having made carbon and oxygen it is then possible to
build up the heavier elements having atomic umbers
increasing by four produced by the absorption of
alpha particles.

STELLAR EVOLUTION

PLANETARY NEBULA

Finally it appears that the star becomes so unstable that the outer parts of
the star are blown off to form what is called a planetary nebula
surrounding the core remnant. Planetary nebulae are some of the most
beautiful objects that we observe in the universe and many, such as the
Ring and Dumbbell Nebulae, may be observed with a small telescope
(Figure 7.5). Planetary nebulae are relatively common with over 1500
known, but it is expected that many more, perhaps over 50 000, will exist
in the Galaxy but are hidden by the dust lanes in our Galaxy. The name
planetary nebulae is, of course, a misnomer as they have nothing to do
with planets, but many do have a disc-like appearance. They are large
tenuous shells of gas which are expanding outwards at velocities of a few
tens of kilometres per second. They also contain some dust and have
masses of typically one-tenth to one-fifth of a solar mass. About 10
planetary nebulae are thought to be formed each year so the interstellar
medium is being enriched by around 1 solar mass per year.

Composite image of
planetary nebula NGC
2392. Image Credit: Xray:
NASA/CXC/IAACSIC/N. Ruiz et al;
Optical: NASA/STScI

WHITE DWARF

They are not very visible. This star is approaching the

final stage of its life when it will become a white dwarf.
Once nuclear reactions have ceased, what is left at the
centre of the star will contract under gravity. It is
composed mainly of carbon and oxygen, and devoid of
its outer layers through a combination of the intense
stellar winds and the ejection of a planetary nebula.

Optical Image (left)

and a portion of the
Hubble Space
Telescope observation
(right) of the globular
cluster M4. The white
dwarfs are circled in
the HST image.

RED SUPERGIANT
They are the largest stars in the universe in terms
of volume, although they are not the
most massive. Betelgeuse and Antares are the best
known examples of a red supergiant.
After the hydrogen in a star's core has fused, stars with
more than about 10 solar masses become red
supergiants for the duration of their helium-fusing
phase. These stars have very cool surface temperatures
(35004500 K), and enormous sizes.

SUPERNOVA

The repulsive electrical forces between the atoms

nuclei overcome the gravitational forces, causing a
massive, bright, short-lived explosion called a
supernova. During the explosion, shock waves blow way
the star's outer layers.

Crab Nebula: is
a supernova
remnant and pulsar
wind nebula in the
constellation of Taurus.

NEUTRONS STAR
Is what remains from the cataclysmic stellar explosion
depends on the mass of the collapsing core. The typical
mass of such a neutron star would be 1.4 solar masses
so that it is, in effect, a giant nucleus containing 1057
neutrons. It will have a radius between 10 km and 15
km the theoretical models are not all that precise.
Assuming a radius of 10 km, the average density would
be 6.65x1014 gcm-3 more than that of an atomic
nucleus.

Swift's X-Ray Telescope captured an

apparent expanding halo around the
flaring neutron star SGR J15505418. The halo formed as X-rays from
the brightest flares scattered off of
intervening dust clouds. Credit:
NASA/Swift/Jules Halpern (Columbia
Univ.)

GIANT STAR
Is a star with substantially larger radius and luminosity than
a main-sequence (or dwarf) star of the same surface temperature.
Giant stars have radii up to a few hundred times the sun and
luminosities between 10 and a few thousand times that of the Sun.
Stars still more luminous than giants are referred to
as supergiants and hypergiants.
A hot, luminous main-sequence star may also be referred to as a
giant, but any main sequence star is properly called a dwarf no
matter how large and luminous it is.

Comparison
between three giant
stars. Taken from
the Kepler mission.

BLACK HOLES
Black holes are regions of space-time from which gravity prevents
anything, including light, from escaping have no specifically
defined size or mass, but so far we have only found evidence for
black holes in two circumstances.
The first, with masses of up to a billion or more times that of our
Sun.
The second are believed to result from the collapse of a stellar
core whose mass exceeds 3 solar masses the point at which
neutron degeneracy pressure can no longer prevent gravitational
collapse.

An image of NGC 4388 in infrared

wavelengths, captured by groundbased Subaru telescope. We see the
entire galaxy. The black hole (and its
accretion disk and doughnut ring) would
be just a dot in the galaxy core. Seeing
galaxies in all wavelengths -- that is,
with radio, infrared, optical, ultraviolet,
X-ray and gamma-ray telescopes -reveals the entire workings of the the
galaxy, from star creation (birth) to black
hole activity (death).

(Credit: NAOJ/Subaru.)