/FCVMB

1SPUPTUBS

4UBS
MJLF
UIF
TVO

The Life Cycle of Stars

Figure 5 Stars change in many ways
over their life cycle. They are born in
giant nebulas of dust and gas and often
end up as white dwarfs billions of years
later. The images in this life cycle are
not shown to scale. Why might
astronomers use the term life cycle
to refer to the changes a star goes
through over time?

Figure 6 A balance between the

inward force of gravity and the outward
force of energy radiation keeps the sun
at a stable size.

0VUXBSE
GPSDF
EVF
UP
FOFSHZ

SBEJBUJPO

'PSDF
PG
HSBWJUZ

698

Chapter 20

The Universe

Stars may appear different from one another because they

are at different stages in their life cycles, as Figure 5 shows. V In
a way that is similar to other natural cycles, stars are born,
go through stages of development, and eventually die.
About 90% of all stars in our galaxy, including the sun, are in
midlife, or converting hydrogen into helium in their interiors.
The sun formed from a cloud of gas and dust.
About 5 billion years ago, a thin cloud of gas and dust, or
nebula, collapsed inward as it was pulled by the force of its
own gravity. As the nebula collapsed, it began to spin. This
small, spinning cloud formed a protostar. About 30 million
years after the nebula started to collapse, the center of the
nebula reached a temperature of 15 million kelvins.
Electrons were stripped from hydrogen atoms to leave
hydrogen nuclei, which are protons. At very high pressures,
protons may get as close to each other as 1015 m. At such a
small distance, the strong nuclear force overpowers electrical
repulsion and the protons fuse. The protons combine to form
helium through this process of nuclear fusion. The onset of
fusion marks the birth of a star. Once this process started in
the core of the nebula, the star that we call the sun was born.
The sun has a balance of inward and outward forces.
Fusion reactions in the suns core generate energy that
produces an outward pressure that balances the inward force
due to gravity, as Figure 6 shows. Because of these balanced
forces, the sun has maintained a stable size for 5 billion years.
The sun is currently converting hydrogen into helium.
Over time, the percentage of the core that is helium becomes
larger. Eventually, the core will exhaust about 25% of its hydrogen, and the number of fusion reactions will decrease. When
this happens, the sun will begin to die. Scientists estimate,
however, that the sun will exist for another 5 billion years.

3FE
HJBOU

1MBOFUBSZ
OFCVMB
8IJUF
EXBSG

The sun will become a red giant before it dies.

As the number of fusion reactions decreases, the pressure
from the release of energy in the core of the sun drops, and the
core will contract under the weight of its outer layers. This
contraction will cause the temperature in the core to rise. The
suns outer layers will expand, and the sun will become a red
giant, a large, reddish star late in its life cycle. The star is red
because its surface is relatively cool. But the core is hot
enough to convert helium into carbon and oxygen.
When the core of a red giant sun depletes most of its
helium, it will contract further, which will cause the outer
layers to expand again. At this point, the temperature at the
core is not high enough to fuse heavier elements. The outer
layers will expand out from the core and will eventually leave
the star. The remnants will become a white dwarf, a small,
dim, and very dense star about the size of Earth. White dwarfs
no longer fuse elements, so they slowly cool. All stars that have
a mass of 1.4 solar masses or smaller, or a mass of less than 1.4
times the mass of our sun, will have a similar life cycle. In fact,
most stars in our galaxy will end as white dwarfs.

red giant (RED JIE uhnt) a large,

reddish star late in its life cycle

white dwarf (WIET DWAWRF) a small,

hot, dim star that is the leftover center of
an old star

supernova (SOO puhr NOH vuh) a

gigantic explosion in which a massive star
collapses and throws its outer layers into
space

What type of star will the sun end up as?

Supergiant stars explode in supernovas.

Massive stars evolve faster than smaller stars do. They also
develop hotter cores that create heavier elements through
fusion. The formation of an iron core signals the beginning of
a supergiant stars death because, unlike fusing lighter elements, fusing iron atoms to make heavier elements requires
adding energy rather than releasing it. When fusion requires
more energy than it can produce, there is no longer any outward pressure to balance the gravitational force. The core
collapses because of its own gravity and then rebounds with a
shock wave that violently blows the stars outer layers away
from the core. The resulting huge, bright explosion is called a
supernova, an example of which is shown in Figure 7.
Section 1

Figure 7 Supernova 1987A, a Type II

supernova, was the first supernova
visible to the unaided eye in 400 years.
The first image shows what the original
star looked like before the explosion.

T h e SLei fcet i o
a n dX DSeeact thi oonf TS it tal res

699