2. All Stars Begin the Same Way: Before life as a star Nebula A nebula is a cloud of interstellar dust, hydrogen and helium gas, and plasma
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6. The Life Cycle Depends on Starting Mass Protostar Main Sequence White Dwarf Black Dwarf Protostar Main Sequence Red Giant White Dwarf Black Dwarf Protostar Main Sequence Super Giant Supernova neutron star black hole Small Mass Medium Mass Large Mass
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8. Main Sequence Stage Remember, all stars go through a main sequence stage Large Mass stars = large main sequence stars Medium Mass stars = medium-sized main sequence stars
10. Red Giants This Stage Happens for Medium Mass Stars Only occurs when star begins running out of hydrogen – it starts cooling and expanding at the same time center shrinks and atmosphere swells
11. Red Giants the end of the red giant stage occurs when the atmosphere of the star becomes so spread out it slowly dissipates this stage is called “planetary nebula”
17. Supergiants Stage That Happens For Large Mass stars only occurs when star begins running out of hydrogen – it starts cooling and expanding at the same time center shrinks and atmosphere swells looks a lot like a red giant, doesn’t it?
18. Supergiants the big difference is the size and brightness supergiants are up to 1,000,000 times brighter than the sun medium star Jupiter large mass star
26. Neutron Star or Black Hole? Black Hole Neutron Star ~ 8 to 15 solar masses > 15 solar masses
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28. What is the longest stage for any star? All stars remain in their Main Sequence stage longer than in any other stage
29. What are neutron stars made of? Neutron stars are made of neutrons . A neutron star is so dense that a teaspoonful would weigh 1 billion tons!
30. What kind of stars form a supernova? Only large mass stars form supernova.
31. What kind of stars form red giants? Medium mass stars like our sun form red giants.
32. What size of stars will form black holes? Only stars with 15 solar masses or larger will form black holes.
33. What kind of stars “skip” the red giant /supergiant phase altogether? Small mass stars go straight from their main sequence stage to white dwarf
34. What stages do all stars have in common? All stars begin as nebula , become protostars and then become main sequence stars.
35. What kind of stars are smaller than Earth? Both white dwarfs and neutron stars are smaller than Earth.
36. What is the one factor that determines the ultimate fate of a star? The mass of a star determines its fate.
37. Which main sequence stars are larger than the Earth? All main sequence stars are larger than Earth.
38. Why won’t our sun ever become a black hole? Our sun will never become a black hole because it does not have enough mass .
39. How many times larger would our sun have to be to supernova? It takes a star that is at least 8 solar masses to be massive enough to supernova, so our sun would have to be at least 8 times as large.
