Life and Death of Stars: a summary

❑ Cut out the heading (above) and stick it at the top of a piece of plain paper.
❑ Cut out each of the five paragraphs, and put them in a logical order, starting with the one that
describes star formation.
❑ Fill in the missing words in each paragraph.
❑ Find the appropriate picture for each paragraph (the caption for each picture is the correct one for
the picture!)
❑ Stick the completed paragraphs and pictures (with captions), in the correct order, onto pieces of
plain paper, to make some notes for your file.

A star spends most of its life fusing .....................

to helium in its core. This stage of its life is often
referred to as its ".................. - ............................"
lifetime. Stars are born with different masses. The When a star runs out of hydrogen in
most massive stars are 10 - 50 times the mass of its core, the core will start to
the Sun (which is written 10 - 50 M). They use up .............................. and the outer
their hydrogen fuel very ............................ and layers will start to expand. The star
have main-sequence lifetimes of "only" a few becomes a ............ ..................... .
............................ years. The least massive stars, The more massive stars become red
with masses ~0.1 to 0.5 M, use up hydrogen fuel supergiants.
very slowly. They have main-sequence lifetimes of
........................... of years.

If the core of a star exceeds 1.4 M (the maximum

mass a white dwarf can have), it continues to
collapse. This collapse occurs suddenly and the
outer layers of the star are thrown off in a huge and Large clouds of .......... (mainly
violent explosion called a ......................................., hydrogen and helium) and ............
which is so bright that it can outshine an entire (composed of tiny carbon and
galaxy (for a few weeks!). If its mass is less than silicon granules) collapse under
about 3.2 M the core of the star collapses further their own .......................... until
until it is as dense as an atomic nucleus, and is their cores become hot and dense
called a ........................ ................. . If the core of enough for ...................... reactions
the star has a mass greater than 3.2 M, not even to begin. The star is said to be
the nuclear forces can support it against its own "born" when ................... begins.
gravity, and it becomes a ................... ...................,
from which not even light can escape.

The fate of a star depends critically on the ................. of its

core. The core of a star like the Sun contracts to
become a .................... ..................... and the outer
layers of the star are puffed away to form a ........................
......................... . The gas making up a white dwarf doesn't
behave like a normal gas. For example, if you double a
white dwarf's mass, you ................. (not double!) its
volume. White dwarfs are so dense that a teaspoon-full of
white dwarf stuff would weigh as much as an elephant
does on Earth. White dwarfs have a maximum mass
of ........... .

This is the Crab Nebula, the remnant of
a supernova explosion. The remains of
the exploded star are still at the centre of
the nebula. The core of the star has
become a neutron star.
This is a picture of how our Sun
appears, if you could see in X-rays! Our
Sun is a stable, main-sequence star. It
will continue fusing hydrogen in its
core for another 4.5 billion years.
This is a planetary nebula, called the Ring
Nebula (for obvious reasons). The ring
structure is the remains of the outer layers of
a star, similar in mass to our Sun. The core
of the star has become a white dwarf, which
you can see at the centre of the ring, shining
with intense blue and ultraviolet light. (NB:
despite the name, planetary nebulae have
nothing to do with planets!)
This is Betelgeuse, a red
supergiant star that is about 600
light years away. It is cooler than
the Sun, but is more massive and
over 1000 times larger. If placed at
the centre of our Solar System, it
would extend past the orbit of
Jupiter.
This is the nearest star-forming
region to Earth, where stars are
being born in a huge cloud of gas
and dust. It is called the Great
Nebula in Orion, and is about 1500
light years away. The blue light is
the reflected starlight from newly-
born, massive stars. The red light is
the emission from ionised
hydrogen.