Stellar Formation &

Evolution
MELITA B. SARIGUMBA
Quezon City High School – Senior High School
Quezon City, PHILIPPINES
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2 Stop at 11:30
The Bigger They Are, The Harder They Fall:
The Evolution OF High Mass Stars
MAIN SEQUENCE  SUPERGIANT   SUPERNOVA 
 Without nuclear After some 10,000 years
The greater a star's radiation to resist the of fusion, the result is an
mass, the shorter its fusion of all the iron core roughly 6,000
lifespan because it will hydrogen in the core km wide. The star is now
use up its hydrogen with helium, gravity doomed. When a star
quicker. immediately crushes reaches a mass of more
matter down into the than 1.4 solar masses,
High mass stars in Main
star's core, quickly electron pressure cannot
Sequence stage are hot
heating the star. Its outer support the core against
and blue, some 1,000 to
layers expand further collapse due to
1 million times as
enormously and cool and gravity.  (cont.)
luminous as the sun and
glow red as it does so,
are roughly 10 times
and is now a 3Supergiant.
 The Bigger They Are, The Harder They Fall:
The Evolution OF High Mass Stars
 SUPERNOVA   NEUTRON STAR
The core collapses, If the collapsing stellar core at the center of a supernova has a
breaking the iron to mass less than 3x our Sun, the collapse continues as electrons
neutrons & neutrinos.
and protons combine to form neutrons. The collapse eventually
In about one second, the &suddenly halts from the pressure of too many neutrons,
core shrinks to about 10 km producing a Neutron Star
wide & rebounds just like a
rubber ball that has been  BLACKHOLE
squeezed, sending a shock
If the collapsing stellar core at the center of a supernova has a
wave through the star that
mass more than 3x our Sun, gravity overcomes the nuclear forces
causes fusion to occur in the
which keep protons and neutrons from combining, & the core is
outlying layers. The star
swallowed by its own gravity, turning it into a Blackhole
then explodes & becomes a
Supernova 4
 “
Elements heavier than
iron, such as lead, gold,
and uranium, are formed
during the death of High
Mass stars.
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 “
Fusion is the process of
combining two or more
things into one.

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 Peeling Back The Layers Of A Star
⋆ High Mass Stars turn into Supergiants, which have several fusion shells and an Iron core
⋆ In comparison, Low Mass Stars like the sun, turn into a Red Giant and only have 2 layers
and a Carbon-Oxygen core

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 Supergiant:
From Hydrogen Shell to Helium Shell
Because of immense heat and pressure from gravity, Hydrogen atoms fuse together become
Helium. The reaction in the Hydrogen Fusion Shell is as follows:

 
+  +
+  +
+ . . + +

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 Supergiant:
From Hydrogen Shell to Helium Shell
When the core reaches the temperature enough for helium fusion to occur, helium-burning
begins. The outside temperature then becomes colder than the core, which causes the star to
become red.
  is formed from Helium fusion
  + . .

More nuclear reactions happen in the helium fusion shell, as the hydrogen fusion shell burns
out.

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 Supergiant:
From Helium Shell to Carbon Shell
⋆ the  Helium core grows, it compresses. Helium doesn’t fuse to heavier elements for two
As
reasons:

⋆ with 2p+ (protons) per nucleus, the electric repulsion force is higher than was the
case for H-fusion

 This is because Helium fusion requires a higher temperature than Hydrogen

Fusion (100 million K)

⋆ + . .

 This reaction doesn’t release energy but it requires input energy

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 This particular Beryllium isotope is unstable
 Supergiant:
From Helium Shell to Carbon Shell
The carbon (C) nuclei produced from the fusion of Helium and Beryllium becomes more
concentrated at the center of the star, as Helium had been earlier, and becomes the Carbon
core
  + . .

From Carbon Shell to Neon Shell

The Carbon core will allow Carbon fusion once it reaches a certain temperature and produces
Neon within a Carbon fusion shell.

  + . .
+ . . +
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 Supergiant:
From Oxygen Shell to Silicon Shell
Oxygen then becomes concentrated at the core and undergoes fusion to produce Silicon.

  + . .

From Silicon Shell to An Iron Core

The
  fusion of Silicon produces a radioactive Nickel , which then decays into Iron .

More nuclear fusions happens between different nuclei to form the other elements until the
Iron core is formed.

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 Supergiant Endgame:
An Iron Core
The production of elements stop when Iron is formed.

Having achieved iron, the star has wrung all the energy it can out of nuclear fusion - fusion
reactions that form elements heavier than iron consume energy rather than produce it. The
star no longer has any way to support its own mass, and the iron core collapses.

In just a matter of seconds the core shrinks from roughly 5000 miles across to just a dozen,
and the temperature spikes 100 billion degrees or more. The outer layers of the star initially
begin to collapse along with the core, but rebound with the enormous release of energy and
are thrown violently outward.

Supernovae release an almost unimaginable amount of energy. For a period of days to weeks,
a supernova may outshine an entire galaxy. Likewise, all the naturally occurring elements and
a rich array of subatomic particles are produced in these explosions.
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 Stellar
Nucleosynthesis

Massive stars burn Helium

to Carbon to Oxygen to
Silicon to Sulfur to Iron.

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 Elements Formed During Stellar
Formation & Evolution
4 – Beryllium, Be 12 - Magnesium, Mg 20 – Calcium, Ca
5 – Boron, B 13 – Aluminum, Al 21 – Scandium, Sc
6 - Carbon, C 14 – Silicon, Si 22 – Titanium, Ti
7 – Nitrogen, N 15 – Phosphorus, P 23 – Vanadium, V
8 – Oxygen, O 16 – Sulfur, S 24 – Chromium, Cr
9 – Flourine, F 17 – Chlorine, Cl 25 – Manganese, Mn
10 – Neon, Ne 18 – Argon, Ar 26 – Iron, Fe
11 – Sodium, Na 19 – Potassium, K

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Low Mass Star Evolution: Main Sequence (Sun)

The Sun’s
Stellar Evolution
⋆ The structure of the Sun has been
changing continuously since it
settled in on the main sequence

⋆ The Hydrogen in the core is being

converted into Helium

⋆ Hydrogen fusion continues in a

shell around the helium core Sun

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Low Mass Star Evolution: Main Sequence (Sun)

⋆ As the Helium core contracts, it

releases gravitational potential
energy and heats up

⋆ Once a significant helium core is

built, the star has two energy
sources

⋆ Curiously, as the fuel is being used

up in the core of a star, its
luminosity is increasing

⋆ Compared to 4.5 Gyr ago, the

radius of the Sun has increased by Sun
6% and the luminosity by 40%

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Low Mass Star Evolution: Main Sequence (Sun)

⋆ In the case of the Sun (or any 1Mo

star) the gradual increase in radius
and luminosity will continue for
another 5 billion years

⋆ While hydrogen fusion is the

dominant energy source, there is a
useful thermostat operating. If the
Sun contracted and heated up, the
fusion rates would increase and
cause the Sun to re-expand

Sun

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Low Mass Star Evolution: Main Sequence (Sun)  Red Giant

Red Giant
⋆ Eventually , in about five billion
years, the sun’s core runs out of
Hydrogen & gravity will cause it to
collapse in itself. This causes the
release of so much heat that the
outer layers expand & cools
⋆ As the core continues to shrink, the
remaining shell of Hydrogen
surrounding the core ignites (begins
nuclear fusion)
⋆ This burning Hydrogen shell will
cause the Sun’s luminosity to P1
Gruis
increase into the Red Giant phase.
The sun expands as the burning H-
shell rains Helium into the inert
Helium core 19
Low Mass Star Evolution: Main Sequence (Sun)  Red Giant

Red Giant
⋆ A Helium nucleus has two positive
charges so it is harder to fuse than
hydrogen. However, the core
continues to contract & things get
hotter until 112M Celsius
⋆ The Helium core ignites, signaling
the end of the Red Giant phase
⋆ The Helium will get fused into
Carbon
⋆ The burning hydrogen shell
surrounds the Helium shell which
P1
will make the Sun a double-shell Gruis
burning giant.

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Low Mass Star Evolution: Main Sequence (Sun)  Red Giant  Planetary
Nebula

The Last Hurrah:

Planetary Nebula & White Dwarf
⋆ Helium reactions never stabilize &
produce thermal pulses. Meanwhile
the Sun is swollen & doesn’t hold
onto its outer layers.
⋆ Everything but the core gets
blasted into space, leaving
behind a Planetary Nebula
⋆ A planetary nebula has
nothing to do with a planet 

Carina Nebula

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Low Mass Star Evolution: Main Sequence (Sun)  Red Giant  Planetary Nebula  White
Dwarf

The Last Hurrah:

Planetary Nebula & White Dwarf
⋆ The exposed stellar core is the
remaining leftover from the
explosion and is called a White
Dwarf
⋆ A White Dwarf is a sphere of
carbon roughly the size of Earth.
⋆ White Dwarf will become a Black
Dwarf when it stops emitting light.

NGC 6751

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nswer the following in your notebook, take picture and post in our gclass. Due
ednesday 11:59 PM
Performance Task 2
Discuss concisely how a star was born (Stellar Birth).
What is Stellar evolution?
Differentiate the stellar evolution of a high mass and low mass stars.
What happens to a star when it starts to manufacture carbon?
What are the fusion shells formed in an onion skin structure of a high mass
star?
Differentiate a rapid neutron capture process or r-process and a slow
neutron capture process or s-process.
What elements are formed during stellar formation and evolution?
Compare and contrast a neutron syar from a white dwarf.
When are elements heavier than iron formed?
0.What is a supernova?

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