Life Cycle of a Star

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Life Cycle of a Star

• Waves, Atoms and Space

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Stage 1

• Protostars

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Protostars

• Huge clouds of gas (hydrogen) in which stars are
  made.
• Many thousands of times bigger than our solar
  system
• As the clouds collapse stars are born in them

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Stage 2

• Main sequence star

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Main Sequence Star

• E.g. Our sun
• Sequence lasts for about 10 000 million years
• Our sun is about half way through its main
  sequence

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Stage 3

• Red Giant

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Red Giant

• As the sun runs out of hydrogen the outer layers
  of the sun will become cooler
• They will also expand massively.
• The Earth (along with Mercury, Venus and Mars)
  will be swallowed up.

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Stage 4

• White Dwarf

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White Dwarf

• Gravity will cause the red giant to collapse
• The sun is now much cooler and it collapses into
  a small white star
• It still has the same mass as the original sun!

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Stage 5

• Black Dwarf

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Black Dwarf

• The sun cools more and more
• Eventually it will become a black mass emitting
  no light
• It will then spend the rest of eternity drifting
  silently through space

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Stars bigger than our sun!

• At least four times bigger (you dont need to
  know about these for your exams)

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Stage 4(for a big star)

• Red Supergiant

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Stage 5(for a big star)

• Supernova

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Supernova!

• The largest and most powerful explosions in the
  universe.
• The red supergiants literally blow themselves
  apart!

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Supernova

• All the atoms we are made from came originally
  from these giant supernova explosions.

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Stage 6(for a big star)

• Black hole

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Black hole

• After the supernova a huge mass is left behind.
• There is so much mass its gravity prevents even
  light from leaving it
• Black holes can suck in nearby stars and solar
  systems.

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• Luckily there are no black holes any where near
  our sun!