The Lifecycle of Stars
As you can see above, both humans and stars are born. Many do not ever question how stars appear, assuming that they are just there. However, just like us, stars are born.
The life of a star all starts with a nebula (a cloud of dust and gas). Clumps of dust and gas then form. These are called 'protostars'. When the core of a protostar reaches a certain temperature, nuclear fusion happens. This indicates the birth of a star and this is when it starts to shine.
A star is a super hot ball of gas with a core where hydrogen is fusing into helium. When the hydrogen is all gone, helium is fused into carbon. The life goal of a star is 'equilibrium'. This is achieving a balance between gravity and it causing atoms to move towards the centre, and pressure moving heat and light from the centre. A star dies when it can no longer do this.
A star is a super hot ball of gas with a core where hydrogen is fusing into helium. When the hydrogen is all gone, helium is fused into carbon. The life goal of a star is 'equilibrium'. This is achieving a balance between gravity and it causing atoms to move towards the centre, and pressure moving heat and light from the centre. A star dies when it can no longer do this.
Small CourseLow-Mass stars are 0.5 solar mass or less. Stars of this size take the planetary nebula course. This means that it would shrink to a white dwarf.
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Medium CourseMedium-Mass stars are 0.5 to 3 solar masses. Stars this size turn into neutron stars. Supernova is when a neutron star is created. A neutron star is about the size of a large city.
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Large CourseMassive Stars are 3 solar masses or larger. Stars of this size can turn into black holes.
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The HR Diagram
Above is the Hertzsprung-Russel diagram. It shows differences between stars and their relationships. A dot represents each star. The vertical axis represents how bright the star is. The horizontal axis represents the surface temperature. This means that if a star is represented in the top left corner, it is hot and bright. To grasp the brightness, you can easily find the sun on the diagram and compare the stars to it, as everyone has knowledge of the brightness of it.
Black Holes
'Black holes are places where ordinary gravity has become so extreme that it overwhelms all other forces in the Universe' (HubbleSite, 2012). The strength of it's gravity prevents anything from escaping, even light. The Universe contains so many black holes that it would be impossible to count them all, however eventually they slowly return their power to the universe by evaporating. Black holes need to have a great amount of mass in a small amount of space, so they do not have to be very big, just compact. All black holes are exactly the same except for their mass, the way it spins and their electric charge. No one will ever be able to know what is inside a black hole, due to the fact that once something is inside it, it is unable to ever escape.