Roger Freedman • Robert Geller • William Kaufmann III

Universe
Tenth Edition

Chapter 6 – Book chapter 18

The Birth of Stars
Prepared by Dr. Nelly Mouawad
 What is the story of the
stars?
Let’s build their story together:
-What is it you would like to know about stars.
- What questions would you ask?

e we connected with stars?

 What is the story of the
Let’s build their story together:
stars?
-What is it you would like to know about stars.
- What questions would you ask?

- how are they born?

- how long do they live?
- how do planets orbit around two stars?
- will we reach a time where there will be no stars?
- so they are formed in their birth place?
- what came first the stars or the planets?
- why/when do they become black holes?
- what fuels a star, how does it burn?
- why do we have stars?
- are they part of agglomerations?
- when they die, what happens?
- what is in a star?
e we connected with stars?
18-1: Understanding how stars evolve requires
observation as well as ideas from physics
This is an H II region; it
is characterized by a
red glow of emission
nebulae which comes
from gas atoms that are
excited by ultraviolet
radiation from nearby
hot stars. While many
photons are emitted
during recombination,
only some are visible,
and red is the most
common.
Ionization and
Recombination
 18-2: Interstellar gas and dust pervade
The Orion the galaxy
Nebula

The middle “star” of the three that make up Orion’s sword is actually an
interstellar cloud called the Orion Nebula. (b) The nebula is about 450
pc (1500 ly) from Earth and contains about 300 solar masses of
material. Most of the ultraviolet light that makes the nebula glow comes
A variety of
different nebulae
appear in the sky
around Alnitak, the
easternmost star in
Orion’s belt
All the nebulae lie
approximately 500 pc
(1600 ly) from Earth.
They are actually
nowhere near Alnitak,
which is only 250 pc
(820 ly) distant. This
photograph shows an
area of the sky about
1.5° across. Emission, Reflection, and Dark
 Reflection
Nebulae
Unlike emission nebulae, reflection nebulae do not emit their own light, but
scatter and reflect light from the stars that they surround. This scattered
starlight is quite blue in color.
 Interstellar Reddening

Dust grains in interstellar space scatter or absorb blue light more than red
light. Thus, light from a distant object appears redder than it really is.
 Interstellar
Reddening

Light from the more distant nebula must pass through more interstellar dust
to reach us, so more interstellar reddening occurs and NGC 3603 is a deeper
shade of red.
 Gas and dust in the
Milkyeasy
There are so many stars that they aren’t Wayto see individually, resulting in
the diffuse whitish band that gives the Milky Way its name. Red glowing gas
clouds (emission nebulae or H II regions) can be seen in the foreground, and
dark, dusty regions that block starlight are concentrated close to the
midplane of the Milky Way Galaxy. This wide-angle photograph also shows
 Spiral Galaxy 83 – The Pinwheel Galaxy Notice the
luminous blue
stars and H II
(pink nebula)
regions along
the spiral
arms.

Spiral galaxies, like our own Milky Way Galaxy, consist of stars, gas and dust
that are largely confined to a flattened, rotating disk. (a) This face-on view of
M83 shows luminous stars and H II regions along the spiral arms.
 Spiral
Galaxy

This edge-on view of NGC 891 shows a dark band

caused by dust in this galaxy’s interstellar medium.
e also have Dark Nebulae and these are very specia
e will see why later.

When first discovered in

the late 1700s, dark
nebulae were thought to
be “holes in the
heavens” where very few
stars are present.
In fact, they are opaque
regions that block out
light from the stars
beyond them.

A Dark
WE SEE STAR FORMATION IN ITS
DIFFERENT STAGES IN DIFFERENT
REGIONS OF THE SKY

If a clump of interstellar matter is cold and dense enough,

it will begin to collapse thanks to the mutual gravitational
attraction of its parts. If the clump is massive enough, it
will first form a protostar, and then it will evolve into a star
through the sequence of events shown in the next slides.
 18-3: Protostars form in cold, dark
nebulae

The dark blobs in this photograph of a

glowing H II region are clouds of gas
called Bok Globules. A typical Bok
globule is a parsec or less in size and
contains from one to a thousand solar
masses of material.

The Bok globules and H II region in

this image are part of a much larger
star-forming region called NGC 281,
which lies about 2900 pc (9500 ly)
from Earth in the constellation
Cassiopeia

Bok
 What do you think is going on in this picture?

Molecular cloud (H2) Barnard 68, about 500 ly distant and 0.5
 The Interstellar Medium
The fact that distant stars are dimmed and reddened by
intervening gas and dust is clear evidence of an
interstellar medium.
 The Interstellar Medium

As shorter wavelengths are scattered more easily than

longer wavelengths, the redder photons are more likely
to make it through the cloud. (Interstellar Reddening)
 Revealing a Hidden
Protostar
Protostars can be in the dark nebula (a) This visible-light view shows a
dark nebula (or Bok globule). No stars are visible within the nebula. (b) The
Spitzer Space Telescope was used to make this false-color infrared image of
the outlined area in (a). The bright red-yellow spot is a protostar within the
dark nebula.
 Evidence of Young
Stars
There are several points to note about star formation in
the Orion Nebula.
 Evidence of Young
Stars

Finally, many stars visible in the nebula

are surrounded by disks of gas and dust.
– Such disks do not last long and are clear evidence that the
stars are very young.
rief Summary of star formation
 Formation of Stars
from
the Interstellar
Medium
A stable cloud colliding with a
shock wave
—the astronomical
equivalent of a sonic boom—
can be compressed and
disrupted into fragments.
 Formation of Stars
from
the Interstellar
Theoretical Medium

calculations show that

some of these
fragments can
become dense
enough to collapse
under the influence of
their own gravity and
form stars.
 Formation of Stars
from
the Interstellar
Medium
Supernova explosions (exploding
stars) produce shock waves that
compress the interstellar medium.
– Recent observations show
young stars forming at
the edges of such shock
waves.
 Formation of Stars
from
the Interstellar
Medium

Another source of shock

waves may be the birth of
very hot stars.
– A massive star is so luminous and hot
that it emits vast amounts of ultraviolet
photons.
 Formation of Stars
from
the Interstellar
When such a star is born, the sudden blast of light, especially
Medium
ultraviolet radiation, can ionize and drive away nearby gas—
forming a shock wave that could compress nearby clouds and
trigger further star formation.
 Formation of Stars from the Interstellar
Medium
When such a star is born, the sudden blast of light,
especially ultraviolet radiation, can ionize and drive away
nearby gas—forming a shock wave that could compress
nearby clouds and trigger further star formation.
This dense cloud is a star-forming
region called Lupus 3, source
ESO/VLT.
[Link]
File:N11_(Hubble).jpg
 18-5: During the birth process,
stars both gain and lose mass

Bipolar Outflow from a protstar

The two bright knots are glowing, ionized Hydrogen gas. They are created
when fast-moving gas ejected from a protostar slams into the surrounding
interstellar medium, heating the gas to high temperature.
 Star Formation and
Jets can emanate from the protostar. While the protostars aren’t necessarily
Jets
visible, some of their jets can be seen emanating from the thick gas and dust
from which the stars are forming. As new stars form, their strong winds and
intense ultraviolet radiation blow away lower-density material, leaving behind
distinct regions with greater density. The denser material makes an ideal
star-forming region to produce stars; the first few bright stars are already
18-6: Young star clusters give insight into
star formation and evolution

Formation of a Star Cluster:

the 30-ly Carina Nebula
(7500 ly away)
Most of the stars
form in clusters.

Star formation has

ended and ultraviolet
light from its stars
power the largest
visible reddish H II
region in our Galaxy.

Within those clusters,

most of the stars are in
binary systems.

A Mature Star
Radiation from a massive star can
cause other stars to form.

The inset shows a massive star that

has spawned other, smaller stars in
this way. These stars are about 770
pc (2500 ly) from Earth in the Cone
Nebula, a star-forming region in the
constellation Monoceros. The
younger stars are just 0.04 to 0.08
ly (2500 to 5000 AU) from the
central star.
18-8: Supernovae compress the interstellar
medium and can trigger star birth
The shock wave
caused by the
violently ejected gas
from a supernova
explosion compresses
the interstellar
medium and start the
star birth process, by
inducing
This a large
composite cloud
image shows
of gas to start
Cassiopeia A, the remnant of
collapse. that occurred
a supernova
about 3000 pc (10,000 ly)
from Earth. In the roughly 300
years since the supernova
explosion, a shock wave has A Supernova
expanded about 3 pc (10 ly) Remnant
outward in all directions from
The shock wave
the explosion has warmed interstellar dust to a temperature of about 300
site.
K (Spitzer Space Telescope infrared image in red), and has heated
interstellar gases to temperatures that range from 104 K (Hubble Space
Telescope visible-light image in yellow) to 107 K (Chandra X-ray Observatory
 A Circumstellar Accretion Disk and
Jets
As they are forming protostars get surrounded by an accretion disk.
Red denotes emission from ionized gas, while green denotes starlight
scattered from dust particles in the disk. The midplane of the accretion disk is
so dusty and opaque that it appears dark. Two oppositely directed jets flow
away from the star, perpendicular to the disk and along the disk’s rotation
Strongest Observational Evidence: Structure of planet
forming disks

One of the most stunning results from the ALMA observatory have been the
discovery of gaps and asymmetries in the dust distribution in planet forming
disks (see Figure above). In some cases the presence of planets seems
unavoidable, as can be seen in the figures above.
[Link]
Summary of all the
episodes of star formatio

How Stars are

Born
Online Class questions on the Birth of Stars from
this site:
[Link]
[Link]
ca_ismstarform_molecularclouds.html
[Link]
ca_ismstarform_gravityvsthermalpressure.html
[Link]
ca_ismstarform_starformmolcloud.html
[Link]
ca_ismstarform_linescattering.html
[Link]
ca_ismstarform_wavelengths.html
[Link]
ca_ismstarform_wiseadage.html
[Link]
ca_ismstarform_emissionnebula.html
 Key Ideas
• Stellar Evolution: Because stars shine by
thermonuclear reactions, they have a finite life
span. The theory of stellar evolution describes
how stars form and change during that life span.
• The Interstellar Medium: Interstellar gas and
dust, which make up the interstellar medium, are
concentrated in the disk of the Galaxy. Clouds
within the interstellar medium are called nebulae.
•
Key Ideas
Dark nebulae are so dense that they are opaque.
They appear as dark blots against a background
of distant stars.
• Emission nebulae, or H II regions, are glowing,
ionized clouds of gas. Emission nebulae are
powered by ultraviolet light that they absorb from
nearby hot stars.
• Reflection nebulae are produced when starlight is
reflected from dust grains in the interstellar
medium, producing a characteristic bluish glow.
 Key Ideas
• Protostars: Star formation begins in dense, cold
nebulae, where gravitational attraction causes a
clump of material to condense into a protostar.
• As a protostar grows by the gravitational accretion of
gases; contraction causes it to heat and begin
glowing.
• Further evolution of a protostar causes it to become
a (main sequence) star. When its core temperatures
become high enough to ignite steady hydrogen
burning, it becomes a (main-sequence) star.
 Key Ideas

• A circumstellar accretion disk provides material

that a young star ejects as jets. Clumps of
glowing gas are sometimes found along these jets
and at their ends.
 Key Ideas
• O and B Stars and Their Relation to H II Regions:
The most massive protostars to form out of a dark nebula
are large and hot stars called O and B stars. They emit
strong ultraviolet radiation that ionizes hydrogen in the
surrounding cloud, thus creating the reddish emission
nebulae called H II regions.
• Ultraviolet radiation and stellar winds from the O and B
stars at the core of an H II region create shock waves that
move outward through the gas cloud, compressing the gas
and triggering the formation of more protostars.
 Key Ideas
• Giant Molecular Clouds: The spiral arms of our
Galaxy are laced with giant molecular clouds,
immense nebulae so cold that their constituent
atoms can form into molecules.
• Star-forming regions appear when a giant
molecular cloud is compressed. This can be
caused by the cloud’s passage through one of the
spiral arms of our Galaxy, by a supernova
explosion, or by other mechanisms.
Roger Freedman • Robert Geller • William Kaufmann III

Universe
Tenth Edition

Chapter 7 – Book Chapter 20

Stellar Evolution: The Deaths
By reading this chapter, you will learn

20-1 What kinds of nuclear reactions

occur inside a star of moderately low
mass as it ages
20-2 How evolving stars disperse carbon
into the interstellar medium
20-3 How stars of moderately low mass
eventually die
20-4 The nature of white dwarfs and how
they are formed
20-5 What kinds of reactions occur
inside a high-mass star as it ages
 By reading this chapter, you will learn
20-6 How high-mass stars end with a
supernova explosion
20-7 Why supernova SN 1987A was both
important and unusual
20-8 What role neutrinos play in the
death of a massive star
20-9 How white dwarfs in close binary
systems can explode
20-10 What remains after a supernova
explosion
20-11 How neutron stars and pulsars are
related
20-12 How novae and X-ray bursts come
from binary systems
 When core hydrogen burning
starts, a star is born!

• When a protostar stops collecting mass

and achieves stable hydrostatic
equilibrium by converting hydrogen into
helium through thermonuclear fusion, it is
known as a zero-age-main-sequence-star.
• The total time a star spends converting
hydrogen into helium in its core is called
the main-sequence lifetime.
Hydrostatic equilibrium
Main-sequence stars swell slightly, grow a little in
temperature, and increase their luminosity during
their main-sequence lifetime.

Over the past 4.6 billion years, the Sun’s luminosity has increased
about 40% and this has caused the outer layers to expand by 6%.
 When core hydrogen burning
ceases, a main-sequence star
becomes a red giant.
• When all of the hydrogen
in the core has been
depleted, the interior can
no longer repel the inward
pull of gravity.
• The core heats under
pressure, causing the outer
layers to expand and swell.
• These outer layers get
farther from the hot core
and cool, resulting in a red
color.
Red giant stars
in Auriga
 Stellar lifetimes depend on initial
starting mass
For your information - not to memorize

The more massive stars need to burn their fuel faster to keep
the star in hydrostatic equilibrium therefore they have shorter
main-sequence lifetimes.
 First, let us look at and learn to interpret a
Hertzsprung- Russell diagrams ( the HR diagram).
 Let’s take a look at what’s going on inside the star
and connect it to the Hertzsprung- Russell diagrams
( the HR diagram).
 3. The Sun as a Fusion Reactor
 How is the energy of the Sun generated?
¨How can such an object shine for already 4.5 x 109 years ?
¨The answer lies in the Einstein’s fundamental equation:

E mc 2
¨The Sun produces its energy by transforming
4 protons  1 4 He + energy
nergy comes from difference between the mass of 4 protons and the
ulting helium nucleus, that is
(mass ( 4 protons > mass (4 He)
s mass difference goes into energy according to E=m c2
Additional Information
Using a chain of fusion reactions called Proton- Proton
for the curious ones.
Chain:

2
1
H 1H  2 H  e    H 1H  3 He    rays 3
He3He 4He  2 1H
 Sun’s Fusion Reactor: Additional Information
continuation for the curious ones.
(1) 1 H 1H  2 H  e  
2 1 3
(2) H  H  He    rays
3 3 4 1
(3) He He He  2 H
 Reactions (1) and (2) must occur twice, before reaction (3) can
proceed.
¨ Each reaction generates energy which goes into motion of the
produced
particles (or into kinetic energy). Continuous supply of kinetic
energy
keeps the interior of the Sun hot.
The energy comes from difference between the mass of 4
protons and the
In resulting heliumtwo
these reaction, nucleus, that is particles are produced:
elementary
(mass ( 4 protons > mass (4 He)
This
(a) mass difference
Positron goes into energy
(e+): anti-particle according
of the electron, to the
has E=m c2
same
physical
properties, except of the positive charge. If a positron
(b)encounters
Neutrinosan (): little neutral one.
No electric charge,
electron, very loweach
the annihilate mass, usually
other and no interaction
produce with matter
gamma-rays
photons.
 Helium burning begins at the center of a
Additional Information red giant.
 III

II
IV

I
 Helium burning begins at the center of a
red giant.
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION At higher temperatures, the
triple alpha process is
1. 4He + 4He → 8Be
2. 8Be + 4He → 12C + energy
3. 12C + 4He → 16O + energy

Helium burning of the “ash” at the core begins explosively

and suddenly, called the helium flash.
Understand but do not memorize
20-1: Stars of between 0.4 and 4 solar masses go
through two distinct red giant stages

The Post-Main-Sequence Evolution of a

1-M Star
These H-R diagrams show the evolutionary track of a star like the Sun as it
goes through the stages of being (a) a red giant star, (b) a horizontal-branch
star, and (c) an asymptotic giant branch (AGB) star. The star eventually
The Structure of an Old, Moderately Low-Mass Aging Star like
our Sun

Near the end of its life, a star like the Sun becomes an immense, red,
asymptotic giant branch (AGB) star. The star’s inert core, active helium-fusing
shell, and dormant hydrogen-fusing shell are all contained within a volume
roughly the size of Earth. Nuclear reactions in the helium-fusing shell are so
rapid that the star’s luminosity is thousands of times that of the present-day
 20-3: Stars of moderately low mass die by
gently ejecting their outer layers, creating
planetary nebulae
Not to memorize:
TT Cygni is an aging star (in
particular, an AGB star) in the
constellation Cygnus that
ejects some of its carbon-rich
outer layers into space. Some
of the ejected carbon
combines with oxygen to form
molecules of carbon
monoxide (CO), whose
emissions can be detected
with a radio telescope. This
radio image shows the CO
emissions from a shell of
material that TT Cygni ejected
some 7000 years ago. Over
that time, the shell has
expanded to a diameter of
 20-3: Stars of moderately low mass die by gently
ejecting their outer layers, creating planetary nebulae
Named after its
shape, this nebula
was first discovered The Cat’s Eye
in 1786. The exposed Nebula
core of the central
star—clearly visible
in the image—is
about 10,000 times
more luminous than
the Sun, and its
intense ultraviolet
radiation powers the
In the nebula,
nebula byare
electrons ionizing its
excited
gas.
to higher energies;
then, photons are
emitted as the
electrons cascade
down to lower
check this podcast: [Link]
energies in the gas’s g/radio/program/cat%E2%80%99s-ey
atoms. The e-nebula-0
mechanisms shaping While the nebula is hotter than the Sun, the gas is
the intricate visible too diffuse to shine by thermal radiation as the
Sun does. Instead, like all planetary nebula, the
ood to understand but not to memorize

Further Stages in the Evolution of

The outer shells of dying
low-mass stars are ejected
in a wonderful variety of
patterns. (a) This shell of
expanding gas, in the
globular cluster M15, is
about 2150 pc (7000 ly)
away from Earth. The
thickness of the shell is
only about 0.1 pc (0.3 ly).
(b) NGC 6826 shows,
among other features,
lobes of nitrogen-rich gas
(red). The process by
which they were ejected is
as yet unknown. (c) Mz 3
(Menzel 3) is 900 pc (3000
ly) from Earth. The dying
star, creating these
bubbles of gas, may be
part of a binary system. Some Shapes of Planetary
(d) The spectacular Nebulae
Butterfly Nebula is thought
to have been channeled by
The outer shells of
dying low-mass stars
are ejected in a
wonderful variety of
patterns. NGC 6826
shows, among other
features, lobes of
nitrogen-rich gas
(red). The process by
which they were
ejected is as yet
unknown
Mz 3 (Menzel 3) is 900 pc (3000 ly) from Earth. The dying star, creating these
bubbles of gas, may be part of a binary system.
The spectacular Butterfly Nebula is thought to have been channeled by a
doughnut-shaped cloud at the center of the disk that separates the two
“wings.”
 The burned-out core of a moderately low-
mass star cools and contracts until it
becomes a white dwarf
Sirius, the brightest-appearing
star in the sky, is actually a
binary star: The secondary
star, called Sirius B, is a white
dwarf. In this Hubble Space
Telescope image, Sirius B is
almost obscured by the glare
of the overexposed primary
star, Sirius A, which is about
104 times more luminous than
Sirius B. The halo and rays
around Sirius A are the result
of optical effects within the
telescope. (NASA; H. E. Bond
and E. Nelan, STScI; M.
Barstow and M. Burleigh, U. of
Leicester; and J. B. Holberg, U.
of Arizona)
Sirius A and its White Dwarf
Companion
The more massive a
white dwarf is, the
smaller its radius.
(The drawings of
white dwarfs of
different mass are
drawn to the same
scale as the image of
Earth.)

The maximum mass

of a white dwarf is
1.4 M.

this mass limit is

called the
Chandrasekhar
limit
The Mass-Radius Relationship for
White Dwarfs
 Artist’s conception of a Polluted White Dwarf

By "pollution," astronomers mean that heavy elements invading the

photospheres -- the outer atmospheres -- of these ‘stars’. The leading
explanation is that exoplanets could push small rocky bodies toward the star,
whose powerful gravity would pulverize them into dust. That dust, containing
heavy elements from the torn-apart body, would then fall on the star. Since
2004, NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope has confirmed about 40 of these special
Life cycle of stars

https://
[Link]/
watch?v=PM9CQDlQI0A
High-mass stars ‘suffer’ a much
more dramatic death
What happens to a star is a matter of
Mass

Our Sun

Temperature, Mass
What happens to a star is a matter of
Mass
MORE GRAVITY

Our Sun

More fusion
& radiation

Temperature, Mas
Lifetime
20-5: High mass stars create heavy elements in
their cores

The Structure of an Old High-

At the heart of this
nebulosity, called SMC
N76, lies a supergiant star
with a mass of at least 18
M. This star is losing mass
at a rapid rate in a strong
stellar wind. As this wind
collides with the
surrounding interstellar
gas and dust, it creates the
“bubble” shown here. SMC
N76, which has an angular
diameter of 130 arcsec,
lies within the Small
Magellanic Cloud, a small
galaxy that orbits our Milky
Way. It is about 60,600 pc
(198,000 ly) distant.
(European Southern
Mass Loss from a
Observatory)
Supergiant Star
 20-5: High mass stars create heavy elements in
Near the end of its their cores
life, a star with an
initial mass greater
than about 8 M
becomes a red
supergiant. The
star’s overall size
can be as large as
Jupiter’s orbit around
the Sun. The stars
energy comes from
a series of
concentric fusing
shells, all combined
within a volume
roughly the same The Structure of an Old High-
size as Earth. Mass Star
Nuclear reactions do not occur within the
iron core, because fusion reactions that
involve iron require an input of energy
 20-5: High mass stars burn much faster and
much more
Not to memorize
 A Core-Collapse
This series of illustrations Supernova
depicts our understanding of the last day in the life
of a star of more than about 8 M.
There are different types of supernovae.

We will look broadly at 2 types only:

type I A, and type II.
A Core-collapse
supernova
is called a
Type II
supernova

Core-collapse
Type IA
Supernova
This series of
illustrations depicts
our understanding of
how a white dwarf in a
close binary system
can undergo a sudden
nuclear detonation
that destroys it
completely. Such a
cataclysmic event is
called a Type Ia
supernova or
thermonuclear
supernova.
(Illustration by Don
Dixon, adapted from
Wolfgang Hillebrandt,
Hans-Thomas Janka,
and Ewald Müller,
Compare Type 1A supernova with a Type II supernova
20-9 We call a core collapse supernova a Type
II supernova.

The information of
the spectrum here are
additional Information
 20-9 White dwarfs in close binary systems can
also become supernovae. These are called Type
Ia supernovae

The information of
the spectrum here are
additional Information
Additional Information – not included
Additional Information – not included
 Supernova Light
A Type Ia supernova reaches maximum
Curves brightness in about a day, followed
by a gradual decline in brightness. A Type II supernova reaches a maximum
brightness only about one-fourth that of a Type Ia supernova and usually has
 Compare Type 1A supernova with a Type II supernova

Progenitor of the supernova:

Type Ia: a white dwarf in a close binary system (the white
dwarf might be very old -- up to 10 billion years)
Type II: a massive supergiant star (the supergiant must be
very young -- as young as 1 million years)

Source of energy:
Type Ia: nuclear fusion (carbon and oxygen to iron)
Type II: gravity (collapse of the iron core)

What's left over:

Type Ia: a gaseous supernova remnant, very rich in iron
Type II: a gaseous supernova remnant, containing
elements heavier than iron. In addition, a Type II
supernova leaves behind a compressed stellar core, either
a neutron star or black hole. from Prof Barbara Ryden OSE
 Can we see it?
In total, humanity has witnessed 8 supernovae explode in
the sky with the naked eye, but many more on a daily
basis using dedicated telescopes.

Betelgeuse is the red supergiant in Orion Nebula

that could explode anytime (in a few 1000 years)

[Link]
whats-going-on-with-betelgeuse-the-future-supernova-just-isnt-that-
cool-say-astronomers/#19ea554d3368
 Cassiopeiae B or Tycho’s supernova (SN 1572) – Type Ia

An animation sequence of the 17th century supernova in the constellation of

Cassiopeia. Surrounding material plus continued emission of EM radiation
both play a role in the remnant's continued illumination. A supernova is the
typical fate for a star greater than about 10 solar masses, although there are
 20-7: In 1987 a nearby supernova
gave us a close-up look at the death
of a massive star

SN 1987A – Before and

After
This photograph shows a small section of the Large Magellanic Cloud as it
appeared before the explosion of SN 1987A. The supernova’s progenitor star
was a B3 blue supergiant. (b) This image shows a somewhat larger region of
the sky a few days after the supernova exploded into brightness. (Australian
 20-7: In 1987 a nearby supernova
gave us a close-up look at the death
of a
the ring structure is expected to massive
fade star
away in 2020 - 2030

SN 1987A –After

The image to the left (taken with the Hubble space telescope) shows the
entire region around supernova 1987A. The most prominent feature in the
image is a ring with dozens of bright spots. A shock wave of material
unleashed by the stellar blast is slamming into regions along the ring's inner
regions, heating them up, and causing them to glow. The ring, about a light-
 Cassiopeiae A

Turbulence causes material to be ejected from the

supernova in irregular “blobs,” as shown by these images of
the supernova remnant Cassiopeia A. Each image was made
using an X-ray wavelength emitted by a particular element
 Cassiopeiae A

Figure 18-26 shows a false-color image of Cassiopeia A made using visible,

infrared, and X-ray wavelengths. (U. Hwang et al., NASA/GSFC)
 Cassiopeiae A

This false-color
radio mage of
Cassiopeia A was
produced by the
Very Large Array
(see Figure 6-23).
The impact of
supernova
material on the
interstellar
medium causes
ionization, and the
liberated electrons
generate radio
waves as they
move. Cassiopeia
A is roughly 3300
pc (11,000 ly)
from Earth Cassiopeia A – A Supernova
Remnant
20-10: A supernova remnant can be
detected at many wavelengths for
centuries after the explosion
The Cygnus Loop is a
roughly spherical
remnant of a supernova
that exploded about
8,000 years ago. The
distance to the nebula is
about 1,500 ly. This
supernova remnant is so
large that it covers an
area of about 45 full
moons! The image
contains more than 1.6
Gb of data and is one of
the largest astronomical
images ever made.
(National Optical
Astronomy Observatory
The Veil
[NOAO] and Nebula
WIYN –
A Supernova
partners)
The Vela
Nebula is
embedded in
an even
larger
remnant
called the
Gum Nebula.
The Vela
supernova
explosion
occurred
about 11,000
years ago,
and the
remnant now
has a
diameter of
about 700 pc
(2300 ly). (© The Vela Nebula – A Supernova
Axel Remnant
Mellinger)
A Summary of Stellar
 Summary of the
previous slide
• Figure 20-24a: The evolution of an isolated star (one that is not
part of a close multiple-star system) depends on the star’s mass.
The more massive the star, the more rapid its evolution. If the
star’s initial mass is less than about 0.4 M , it evolves slowly over
the eons into an inert ball of helium. If the initial mass is in the
range from about 0.4 M to about 8 M, it ejects enough mass
over its lifetime so that what remains is a white dwarf with a
mass less than the Chandrasekhar limit of 1.4 M . If the star’s

initial mass is more than about 8 M, it ends as a core-collapse

supernova, leaving behind a neutron star or black hole.
 Key Ideas
• Late Evolution of Low-Mass Stars: A star of
moderately low mass (about 0.4 M to about 4 M)
becomes a red giant when shell hydrogen fusion
begins, a horizontal-branch star when core helium
fusion begins, and an asymptotic giant branch
(AGB) star when the helium in the core is
exhausted and shell helium fusion begins.
• As a moderately low-mass star ages, convection
occurs over a larger portion of its volume. This
takes heavy elements formed in the star’s interior
and distributes them throughout the star.
 Key Ideas
• Planetary Nebulae and White Dwarfs: Helium shell flashes
in an old, moderately low-mass star produce thermal pulses
during which more than half the star’s mass may be ejected
into space. This exposes the hot carbon-oxygen core of the
star.
• Ultraviolet radiation from the exposed core ionizes and excites
the ejected gases, producing a planetary nebula.
• No further nuclear reactions take place within the exposed
core. Instead, it becomes a dense sphere about the size of the
Earth and is called a white dwarf. It glows from thermal
radiation; as a white dwarf cools, it becomes dimmer.
 Key Ideas
• Late Evolution of High-Mass Stars: Unlike a moderately
low-mass star, a high-mass star (initial mass more than about 4
M) undergoes an extended sequence of thermonuclear
reactions in its core and shells. These include carbon fusion,
neon fusion, oxygen fusion, and silicon fusion.
• In the last stages of its life, a high-mass star has an iron-rich
core surrounded by concentric shells hosting the various
thermonuclear reactions. The sequence of thermonuclear
reactions stops here, because the formation of elements
heavier than iron requires an input of energy rather than
causing energy to be released.
 Key Ideas
• Core-Collapse Supernovae: A star with an initial mass
greater than 8 M dies in a violent cataclysm in which its core
collapses and most of its matter is ejected into space at high
speeds. The luminosity of the star increases suddenly by a
factor of around 108 during this explosion, producing a
supernova.
• More than 99% of the energy from a core-collapse supernova is
emitted in the form of neutrinos from the collapsing core.
• The matter ejected from the supernova, moving at supersonic
speeds through interstellar gases and dust, glows as a nebula
called a supernova remnant.
 Key Ideas
• A Type II supernova is the result of the collapse of the core
of a massive star, as are supernovae of Type Ib and Type Ic
• White Dwarf Supernovae (Type Ia): An accreting white
dwarf in a close binary system can also become a
supernova when carbon fusion ignites explosively
throughout such a degenerate star. This is called a
thermonuclear supernova.
• One scenario for Type Ia supernovae is an accreting white
dwarf in a close binary with an star; another scenario
involves the merger of two white dwarfs.
 Are we connected with stars?
You can think of stars as factories of
chemical elements:
All elements heavier than Helium were formed
inside stars
through nuclear fusion.
Large stars with masses bigger than 8 solar
masses will manufacture elements heavier than
Carbon. The heaviest element created in cores of
stars through thermonuclear fusion is iron (Fe).
All elements heavier than iron where create in
fractions of a second during a supernova
explosion.
All elements found on earth were once formed