CHAPTER 13

Evolution of High-Mass
Stars

Understanding Our Universe

FIRST EDITION
Palen | Kay | Smith | Blumenthal

© 2012 by W. W. Norton & Company

Motto of High Mass Stars –
Live Fast, Die Hard
“No”
Pre-main
Sequence

Mass >
8 solar
masses
CNO Cycle: High Mass Stars
Hold Their PP

Carbon + 4 Hydrogens + 2 electrons

=
Carbon + helium + neutrinos + energy!
Livin’ Large

▪ H runs out in core,

▪ Star leaves the MS

▪ Expands and cools

but stays bright.
▪ What happens to a
low mass star
here?

▪ What kind of fuel?

Helium Burning
▪ High mass star:
Ignites He in a
nondegenerate
core – doesn’t
need electron
pressure
▪ Temperatures hot
enough for fusing
BIGGER and
BIGGER atoms
Main Sequence

H
Burning Layers
H

He
Burning Layers
H

He

C
Burning Layers
H

He

O
Burning Parfaits
H

He

Si
Burning Parfaits
H

He

C
O
Si
Fe
▪ High-mass stars
expand and cool

▪ Pass through the

instability strip.

▪ Temperature and
luminosity make
stars pulsate.
 Henrietta Swan Leavitt – You
GO girl!
▪ Cepheid variables:
• High-mass stars becoming
supergiants.
• Get bright and dim every
1 to 100 days.
• More luminous stars have longer
periods.
• Used by the diabolical thief named
Hubble
• RR Lyrae – low mass analogues
 Henrietta Swan Leavitt – You
GO girl!
▪ Cepheid variables:
• High-mass stars becoming
supergiants.
• Get bright and dim every
1 to 100 days.
• More luminous stars have longer
periods.
• Used by the diabolical thief named
Hubble
• RR Lyrae – low mass analogues
 Living on Borrowed Time
▪ Each period of burning progressively
shorter
Million of years of burning

1000 years of burning

A few days of burning

Iron Man
▪ Fusion before iron
GIVES energy

▪ Fusion past iron

USES energy that
star doesn’t have

▪ With iron core,

fusion stops, and
gravity wins.
 Zwicky, Baade and Neutrons

Middle of supernova cores are small neutron stars

Billions of neutrons, crammed together into size of a city

Neutron Degeneracy pressure

 That’s All She Wrote…

▪ Core collapses, central temperature rises.

▪ Electron degeneracy can’t do a darn thing.
▪ Neutrons say “enough is enough” and push
back
▪ HUGE shock wave rips through star
▪ More neutrinos than you could imagine!
▪ Neutrino’s actually INTERACT!
▪ Outer layers blow off in tremendous explosion
(Type II supernova), leaving a neutron star
core.
▪Neutrinos carry off
energy of 100 billion
Suns!

▪Enough energy to
create elements
heavier than IRON!
Big Star go Boom!
 The Most Astounding Fact

▪ 1950’s – Stellar Nucleosynthesis - Most

atoms heavier than iron made in supernova
explosions (B Squared F H).
 Why so Astounding?

Big Bang = Universe had hydrogen and helium

We are made of more than hydrogen and helium

Need lots of energy to make heavier elements

Need heavier elements to make ourselves

Why are supernovae important?

 Small Supernova Leftovers

Binary Neutron Star

▪ Type II supernova leaves behind a

neutron-degenerate core: neutron star.
▪ Mass ~ 1.4 M◉, radius size of Manhattan
Jocelyn Bell, LGM1
Blinking light sources

Stunning regularity

Alien communication?
Pulsars
 GRBs: The Biggest Explosions
in the Universe
▪Long GRB
- ~300 seconds
- Massive star explosion (Wolf-Rayet)

▪Short GRB
- ~10 seconds
- binary system (neutron star + another star)
GRB: Gamma Ray Bursts

All GRB’s have supernovae

Not all supernovae go GRB

Hunting GRBs
Speed is key
GRB astronomers can interrupt your observing
GRB
Black Holes and Escape Velocity

Event Horizon –
Point of no return

Gravity past this

point pulls down
light itself

Singularity – LOTS
of mass at the
center
Black Holes for Everyone!

Supermassive
black hole at center of
every galaxy (we think)
Spaghettification
 Einstein’s Principles of Special and
The General
Principles of Relativity
relativity

1)Laws of physics are

the same everywhere.
(space and time are
not absolute)

2) The speed of light

is ALWAYS c=3e8 m/s.
SR: The Real Fountain of Youth

▪ Light Clocks and the Twin Paradox

▪ Two twins, 20 years old (Biff and Cliff)
▪ Biff stays home, Cliff blasts off in a
spaceship
▪ Travels at “c” for 5 years
▪ Cliff gets home and is 25. Biff is 90.
▪ Speed slows time (used in GPS!)
GR: Space and Time can be
Molded
▪ Space and time can
stretch and bend

▪ Mass bends space and

time

▪ Einstein - Gravity is the

“shape” of space and
time! (c 12:50)
GR: Mass Slows Down Time
GR: Mass Bends and Stretches
Light

Gravitational lensing –
The path light takes
through the bends and
folds that mass makes
into spacetime.