Life Cycle of a Massive Star
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Life Cycle of a Star
By Oliver Smith
Life as we know it wouldn’t exist without the Sun. This ball of gas emits huge amounts of radiation that has sustained life on Earth for millions of years, and it is categorized as a star. The following activities will introduce students to the cycles of main sequence and massive stars as well as nuclear fusion reactions.
Storyboard Description
Life Cycle of a Massive Star
Storyboard Text
- STELLAR NEBULA
- MASSIVE MAIN SEQUENCE STAR
- RED SUPER GIANT
- SUPERNOVA
- NEUTRON STAR
- OR
- BLACK HOLE
- A nebula is a cloud of dust and gas that collapses under its own weight. As the cloud collapses, it gets warmer. When it reaches a certain temperature, nuclear fusion starts.
- At this stage, the pressure from the nuclear fusion reactions are balanced by the force of gravity. The star will spend millions or billions of years in this stage, depending on its size.
- When the nuclear fuel runs out, the star swells in size. As the star grows, the outer layers cool, giving the star a red color.
- The star’s core collapses, causing a violent explosion, and throwing the outer layers of the star into space.
- What is left after the explosion is a very dense core known as a neutron star.
- If the star is extremely big, a very dense neutron star, known as a black hole, could form. A black hole is an area of space where the gravity is so strong that even light can’t escape.
Image Attributions
- The Orion Nebula and cluster from the VLT Survey Telescope - European Southern Observatory - (License Attribution )
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