LIFE CYCLE OF A STAR
PRESENTED BY
ADARSH KUMAR SINGH
ANSH KUMAR
SOBHAM GHOSH
JAYKRISHNA DHARA
AKASH DUBEY
OF
KARIM CITY COLLEGE
JAMSHEDPUR
PROCESSES IN THE LIFE OF A STAR
Stars undergo mainly three processes in its life time
1 BIRTH - It takes almost 10 million years to form and shine
2 LIFE - A star glows for almost 10 billion years after being
formed
3 DEATH - After its life time a star starts to die or we can say
its fuel for heat and light starts vanishing
BIRTH OF A STAR
Formation of stars starts from nebula. A nebula
is a giant cloud of dust and gas in space. Some
nebulae(more than one nebula) come from the
gas and dust thrown out by the explosion of a
dying star, such as supernova and kilonova.
These contain mostly dust and hydrogen and
helium gases which are very spread out due to
which its density is very low.
Nebula
PROCESS OF FORMATION
In a nebula atoms are very spread out but due to gravitational force between these particles they
come closer and closer and their kinetic energy keeps increasing. Eventually when they are very
close then electrostatic force of repulsion starts acting between two particles and try to repel them
from each other but till that moment their kinetic energy is increased at a very large extent that it
will overcome the electrostatic repulsion force and fusion will start between the atoms due to which
a large amount of heat energy is released that will increase the temperature of the formed structure
to almost 5000°C due which it will starts glowing yellow. Now two forces are acting one is the
gravitational force between particles which is still increasing and pushing the particles inwards and
other is the outward force which is created due to outward thermal pressure created due to the
heat released in fusion . Now a equilibrium will be established between these two forces which will
lead to the formation of a star with a stable and fixed shape. The formed star have that much
amount of atoms in it that will be used as the fuel for fusion reaction of the star for next 10 billion
years and star will glow and release heat for the next 10 billion years.
HYDROGEN-HYDROGEN FUSION REACTION
First hydrogen gets fused to Deuterium then to tritium then to
beryllium and at final stage , beryllium gets fused to helium releasing a
large amount of energy in the form of heat and light during this whole
process from hydrogen to helium. This whole process of fusion
reaction occurs mainly at the core of star.
LIFESPAN OF A STAR
Average life of a star ranges from 50
million years to 20 billion years. It
depends very much on its size. Very
massive stars faster burns it up its fuel
supply so having less life span and small
stars have a large lifespan as they burn its
fuel slowly. Our Sun is an average size
star have life span of 10 billion years and
it already lived 5 billion years.
SUN
DEATH OF A STAR
The fusion of hydrogen is easy than the fusion of helium so 90%
of fusion reaction occurs of hydrogen. When the hydrogen at the
core starts vanishing then the star starts dying. This death of star
occurs in various phases and these phases depends upon the size
of the star. These phases are
1. Red giant
2. White dwarf
3. Supernova
4. Neutron star
5. Black hole
RED GIANT
This phase is common for both massive and
small stars. A red giant is formed when a star
has run out of hydrogen fuel for nuclear
fusion. Energy of atoms at core is higher than
at the outer surface so hydrogen at core will
vanish quickly than at the surface. Since
fusion is stopped in core hence no thermal
outward pressure at core so it will contract
due to gravitational force. And at outward
some hydrogen is left so it will expand. Fusion
is stopped but it is still hot hence it appears
red and by this a red giant is formed.
HELIUM –HELIUM FUSION REACTION
In the core of red giant all hydrogen gets
fused to helium and helium atoms are coming
at core due to gravitational force leading to
increase their kinetic energy. When helium
atoms are very close to each other till that
point their kinetic energy is so much
increased that it can start fusion of helium
atoms to carbon. So at the centre of red giant
helium is fusing to carbon and at outer
surface the hydrogen which was left is fusing
to helium. At this moment size of star became
stable.
Now after fusion of helium to carbon
there are two cases
1. For small and light stars
2. For heavy and massive stars
FOR SMALL AND LIGHT STARS
These are those stars whose mass
ranges from mass of the sun to eight
times the mass of the sun.
The kinetic energy of its atoms is never
so high that they can cause fusion of
carbon nuclei. So carbon is the last
phase of this kind of stars. Our Sun is
one of this kind of star which will end
at carbon.
WHITE DWARF
After being fused to carbon the core will further contract due to
gravitational force and outside layer will further expand such that
the star loses mass from outside. In the core the carbon cannot be
fused further so there will be no thermal pressure to oppose
contraction so contraction will continue but after some time there
will be electron degeneracy pressure which will act outside and
increases on further contraction so an equilibrium will be
established between both and the size of the star will become
stable. The formed structure is known as white dwarf.
WHITE DWARF BLACK DWARF
(Nebula)
There will not be further production of heat as there is not fusion but the
white dwarf is hot due to heat of the previous fusions so it will take
further 10 billion years to get cooled down and after being cooled it will
become black dwarf. Early days when white dwarf was seen then people
called it nebula. It is surrounded by a layer of gases. Black dwarfs are the
last phase of sun like medium sized stars. Black dwarfs are lumps of
carbon as fusion of outside gases also occurred and carbon formed
FOR HEAVY AND MASSIVE STARS
For stars whose mass is greater than the ten times mass
of the sun the phase is different. The kinetic energy of
the atoms at core are very high such that they can fuse
carbon and nitrogen will form. Nitrogen will again fused
to oxygen and this will continue further and will be
stopped at iron as iron nuclei is the most stable nuclei
so further fusion will not occur as it will not provide
stability.
SUPERNOVA
After fusion is stopped at iron there will not be
any outward force to oppose the inward
contraction due to gravitational force and
eventually contraction reaches a phase where
star cannot stand on its weight and a massive
explosion will occur and whole of the mass gets
summoned to a very small volume. This
explosion is called supernova. Its the biggest
explosion that humans have ever seen. It can A supernova recorded by NASA
even destroy thousands of planets in its way.
After Supernova a star have two
possibilities
1. Either it will become neutron star
and become stable , or
2. It will become black hole
NEUTRON STAR
Those stars will form neutron star whose
core mass (iron) is greater than 1.4 times
mass of the sun and less than 5 times
mass of the sun. Here electron degeneracy
will also not work so neutrons will come in
role and balance the contraction and a
stable shape structure will be established
called neutron star. It is very dense. It is
very hot due to supernova so it emits X-
rays hence can’t be seen even through
Hubble telescope.
BLACK HOLE
Those stars will form black hole
whose core mass is greater than 5
times the mass of the sun. Its
gravitational pull is so strong that it
cannot be stopped by electron
degeneracy or by neutrons and
eventually the core will collapse itself
and the formed structure is called
black hole. Its mass is very high and
radius is very small due to which its
escape velocity is very high such that Structure of black hole
even light cannot escape black hole.
THE
END