I m made up of gas and dust. Particularly thick clumps of gas and dust will collapse under gravity to form the next stage of stellar evolution. I m the star that astronomers know the most about. My energy comes from nuclear fusion, hydrogen turning into helium in my core.
I m just one of the stars in this picture. Believe it or not, I m much bigger than the Sun! I m so hot that I burn blue. I m so big and hot that I m 1,000 to 1,000,000 times brighter than the Sun. My energy comes from nuclear fusion, hydrogen turning into helium in my core. When the Sun turns into me, it will grow so big that it will envelop the Earth. In my core I ve run out of hydrogen but there are still nuclear reactions in my outer layer. I m not hot enough inside to have nuclear reactions that make helium into bigger elements.
I m the biggest type of star. On the outside, I m cooler than the Sun, which makes me look red, but I m so hot inside that I have nuclear fusion reactions that turn helium into bigger and bigger elements until it becomes iron. I form when a star blows off its outer layers in a strong wind, forming beautiful gas clouds around the star. My name is a misnomer I actually have nothing to do with my name.
BANG! I happen when a star s core is made of iron, which means that it can t get any more energy from nuclear fusion. I m not doing any nuclear fusion any more. I m destined to sit here and cool down for the rest of eternity. I ve been squeezed down so small that I m very dense. If you could scoop up a spoonful of me, it would weigh as much as an elephant.
I m like a giant nucleus with no protons. I weigh about twice as much as the Sun but I m only 15 miles across. If you could pick up a teaspoonful of me, it would weigh 5x as much as all the people on Earth put together. My gravity is so strong that anything that falls into me can never come out again. My gravity is so strong that it bends light around me.
Stellar Life Cycle Activity Cards available online at: http://www.tauceti.caltech.edu/jrv/stellar_evolution_cards.pdf Suggested use: Each card has a picture of a stage in the stellar life cycle and some clues about it but does not say its name. Shuffle the cards and have students match them with their names and put them in order to show the life cycles of small stars (like the Sun) and large stars. You can draw out a diagram (example below) showing the names of each stage of stellar evolution and how they are connected to help the students. Images (except #10) were collected by http://chandra.harvard.edu/edu/formal/stellar_cycle/index.html which has a more complex version of this activity for students who are more familiar with the stages of stellar evolution. 1. Star- forming interstellar cloud (stellar nursery): Omega Nebula [Hubble Space Telescope image] http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap040828.html 2. Small star (low- mass main- sequence star): Sun [Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) image] http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap981212.html 3. Large star (massive main- sequence stars): Butterfly open cluster [NOAO image] http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap990106.html 4. Red giant: illustration by artist Ralf Schoofs - http://www.ralf- schoofs.de 5. Red supergiant: illustration by artist Dana Berry 6. Planetary nebula: Eskimo Nebula [Hubble Space Telescope image] http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap031207.html 7. Supernova remnant: Tycho Type Ia supernova remnant [The Chandra X- Ray Observatory image] http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/2002/0005/index.html 8. White dwarf: Sirius B (fainter star in image) [McDonald Observatory image] http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap960902.html 9. Neutron star: Artist s illustration by Dr. Robert Mallozzi [University of Alabama in Huntsville, and Marshall Space Flight Center] http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/2002/1132/index.html 10. Black hole: Simulated observations from movie Interstellar [Paramount Pictures / Kip Thorne] http://news.discovery.com/space/interstellar- black- hole- is- best- black- hole- in- sci- fi- 141029.htm