Stellar Evolution
Nate ChildersHart Middle SchoolRochester, Michigan
1.Stellar Evolution E5.2x
Stars, including the Sun, transform matter into energy in nuclear reactions. Whenhydrogen nuclei fuse to form helium, a small amount of matter is converted toenergy. These and other processes in stars have led to the formation of all theother chemical elements. There is a wide range of stellar objects of different sizesand temperatures. Stars have varying life histories based on these parameters.
2.
Narrative
:
Like humans, stars pass through different stages in their lives. They are born, they matureand, eventually, they die. However, unlike humans, the typical star may last for millions orbillions of years. While we cannot witness the complete life cycle of any one star, the nightsky does reveal stars in various stages of stellar development. In some ways we’ve got atime machine that enables us to look back and out into the future. In so doing we canglimpse aspects of our own star’s past and destiny.Like all stars, our Sun was formed from a cloud of hydrogen gas and dust that almostcertainly included the ashes from an earlier star gone supernova. In its death throes, itcreated elements heavier than iron that our solar system inherited. Gravity pulled the cloudtogether into a giant ball. When enough gas and dust had gathered, enormous pressures atthe center forced hydrogen atoms to begin fusing into helium, thereby releasing energy andraising the temperature at the core to over 15 million degrees. Another star was born, andthe Sun began to glow.The birth of all stars is much like that of the Sun, but the mass of the gas and dustcomprising the star will determine its precise destiny. Medium-sized stars like our Suneventually use up their hydrogen fuel, cool and expand into red giants. Later they shed theirouter layers and appear as a diffuse cloud called a
planetary nebula
(which, confusingly, hasnothing to do with planets!), lose more gas, shrink down to become
white dwarf
stars, andeventually even smaller stellar corpses called
black dwarfs
. At this stage they may be only afew thousand miles in diameter.In general, the smaller the mass of a star, the longer its life. Our Sun is now near the mid-point of its estimated 10 billion year life. Stars that are many times more massive than ourSun experience dramatic and sometimes explosive endings. Following the
red giant
stagethey may continue to expand into
supergiants
. The core then shrinks and grows hotter anddenser. Eventually internal forces erupt to cause the star to explode as a
supernova
. Thestellar remnants become either extremely dense
neutron stars
or mysterious
black holes
,objects with such a strong gravitational pull that not even light can escape. Matter ejectedfrom a supernova is blown out into interstellar space and may enter a kind of cosmicrecycling program, seeding new solar systems of stars, planets, and moons with the goldand iron of the earlier generation of stars.Stars come in several colors—red, orange, yellow, white and blue. The color of a star offersus a clue to its surface temperature. Red stars are the coolest and blue stars are thehottest. Our Sun is classified as a medium-sized, yellow dwarf star. Astronomers use starcolor and actual brightness to determine the stage in a star’s life cycle.
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3.
Activity Title: Comparing Star Color
Content Expectation:
E5.2f
Explain how you can infer the temperature, life span, and massof a star from its color. Use the H-R diagram to explain the life cycle of stars.
4.
Question to be Investigated
:
Why do some stars appear reddish, some white, and some bluish white?
5.Activity Description:
1)Have student groups look at pictures of various stars fromhttp://nix.ksc.nasa.gov/info;jsessionid=wrqwwqpiam3k?id=GL-2002-001195&orgid=6,and have them create a list of similarities and differences of thestars.
2)
Show students the images from “The Size of Our World” to introduce thedifferences in size between stars.
3)
Have students form a hypothesis about how the colors emitted from a glowingobject relate to the object’s temperature.
4)
Set up a lamp with an unfrosted light bulb plugged into a dimmer switch.
5)
Darken the room.6)Turn on the lamp and dim it until it is just barely on.7)Ask students to observe and note the color of the glowing filament in the bulb.8)Slowly turn up the bulb so it gets brighter and brighter.9)Have students observe and note the changing color of the glowing lamp filament.
10)
Next, give each group of students a candle in a small tin pan. Have studentslight a candle and observe the flame.
11)
In groups, have the students discuss and note the different colors observed in theflame.12)As a class, discuss the different colors observed.
13)
Have students look back over the star pictures and discuss the differences theysee now, and how the color of the star relates to the temperature.
14)
Have students create a graph, using the Star Comparison Chart, of the stars colorversus their temperature. They should observe a clear relationship.15)In groups, have students discuss the relationship that exists between stars color,temperature, mass, and power.
16)
Have students write a reflection on the activity describing the relationshipbetween color and temperature, mass and power of stars.
6.Teacher Notes
Additional Information:
Many students think of something very hot as being “red hot.” They seldomthink of blue as being a “hot” color. With the lamp turned down to aminimum, the filament glows a dim red color. The filament glows because itis hot, but it can get much hotter and glow much more brightly. As the lampis turned up the filament receives more power. It gets hotter and glowsbrighter. Its color progresses from dim red to orange to yellow to white. As itgets hotter it glows brighter. There is a relationship between the temperature
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and the color of the glowing filament. If the filament could be made to gloweven hotter, it would progress from white to blue in color.Many students have seen the color progression from red through yellow toblue in the flame of a camp fire. The cool flame is red or orange and thehottest flame is blue. Explain that the color of the flame near the wick of thecandle is bluish in color and hottest in temperature. The outside edge of theflame is yellow or red and is the coolest part of the flame. The same colorprogression holds true for stars. Scientists use color to help determine thetemperature of a star. The coolest stars at 3,000 degrees Celsius glow red.The hottest stars have surface temperatures in the tens of thousands of degrees and glow with a fierce blue light. Such stars are extremely bright,powerful, and easy to see at great distances.The white and blue stars burn their fuel at the highest temperatures. Theyproduce the most energy and so they are the most powerful stars. Thesestars are also the biggest stars.The bigger a star is, the more mass it has. More mass means the starpresses in on itself more strongly. It gets hotter in the core than a smallerstar, so it burns faster and at a much higher temperature. Because it burnshotter it also gives off more energy than a smaller, cooler star.
Safety Concerns
Do not touch the light bulb, the light bulb will become very hot.Care should be taken when using matches. Students should wear safetygoggles and be reminded of fire safety in the classroom.
7.Graphs, Charts, Illustrations:
Star Comparison Chart
StarColorTemperature(˚C)Mass in termsof Solar MassPower in SunsSunYellow5,70011Proxima CentauriRed2,3000.1UnknownBarnard’s StarRed3,0000.10.01Epsilon EridaniOrange4,6000.10.4Alpha CentauriYellow6,00012AltairWhite8,000312VegaWhite9,900361SiriusWhite10,000327RigelWhite10,000352,000RegulusWhite11,0008221HadarBlue25,5002079,000AlnilamBlue27,00020112,000
8.Credits and Sources
•
Starry Night; The Stars; www.starrynight.com
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