Stellar EvolutionThis Mini-Lesson Will Cover

1. What are the stage’s of a stars life cycle?2. What determines the pathway of a star’s life

cycle?3. What pathway is our Sun following?

Day 1: Star Life Cycle Chart Main Sequence Stars

1. What is the birthplace of all stars?

2. What determines which of the three pathways a star will take?

3. At what stage is our Sun at?

4. Our Sun will finish its life cycle as what type of star?

5. The largest stars will finish their life cycle as what type of star?

Day 2: Star types.Nebula – a cloud of gas and dust in space

that is the birthplace of star.

Protostar – young stars that are too small to fuse hydrogen (convert nuclear energy to light energy).

Day 2: continuedMain Sequence Star – A middle age star that is fusing hydrogen into helium. Our Sun is at this stage.

Red Giant and Super Giants – Older star running out of hydrogen and starting to fuse helium and other elements.

Day 2: continuedSupernova – Exploding star. Source of new

interstellar gas and dust and the heavier elements we are made of.

White Dwarf – A dyeing star. No longer doing nuclear fusion to form light energy but still hot enough to glow.

Black Dwarf – Dead star. To cold to glow.Neutron Star – Leftover core of a supernova. Very

dense.Black hole – Leftover core of supernova that is so

dense that light cannot escape its gravitational pull.

Day 2: cont…

Black Dwarf

Black Hole (Artist Rendition)

White Dwarf

Day 3: Practice

Name __________________ Massive Star Life Cycle

Directions: Rank each of the following pictures by age, going from youngest to oldest. Put a 1 in the blank by the picture you think is the youngest star, a 2 in the blank by the second youngest, and so on. If you wish, try to guess the age of each star.

A _______(info)

B________(info)

C________(info)

D________(info)

E________(info)

F________ (info)

G________(info)

H________(info)

Day 3: cont. An online version of the previous slide is

located at

http://btc.montana.edu/ceres/html/LifeCycle/starsunbigstar.html

This may be easier to work with.

Answers:

Day 3: AnswersCorrect Sequence:1. C. Orion Nebula 2. H. Protostars being formed from Eagle Nebula3. A. Large Star seen from Hubble. May be the most

luminous star recorded. 10 million times the power of the sun and large enough to fill Earth’s orbit.

4. D Red Giant – Betelgeuse 5. F Nova Cygni6. E. Supernova Blast (Began in 1987)7. B. Crab Nebula - tattered remains of Supernova8. G. Oxygen-Rich nebula from Supernova blast 3,000

years ago