NAME______DATE ______
PER______
INTRODUCTION
Today we will be exploring the many aspects of stars from their birth to their death. In general you will find that stars are destined to take one of two paths during their life and eventual death. Please take a couple of minutes to review what important information you will be asked to record so that you can stay on task.
Life and Death of a Star - History Channel - Part 1
1. How many stars are in the universe? ______
2. How many stars are in our galaxy? ______
3. What are the Pillars of creation? ______
4. How far away from Earth is the Eagle Nebula?______
PAUSE
WHAT IS A LIGHT YEAR? Use the word “distance” in Your answer. ______
RESUME
5. What are the Pillars made out of? ______.
6. What is the key component of stars (it is the lightest and simplest element)? ______
7. What force pulls things together like planets and stars? ______.
8. A protostar is formed when dust and gas in a solar system spin and flatten into a disk. Eventually when the protostar reaches very high temperatures, what happens? ______
9. What is fusion? ______
10. What provides a star with energy to live? ______
11. What does gravity try to do to the star? ______
12. Why doesn’t the star just collapse from the gravitational force ?______
13. A star spends most of its life in an equilibrium state (gravity pushes in/fusion pushes out) called?
______.
PAUSE
FUSION DIAGRAM:
LOOK AT ESRT
14. All stars on the main sequence are not alike. What are some differences? ______
15. Hot stars usually emit what color. ______.
16. Cold stars usually emit what color. ______.
17. Characteristics of a Red Dwarf: ______.
18. Characteristics of BLUE MAIN SEQUENCE STARS: ______.
PAUSE
Referring to the ESRT, answer the following:
What is the approximate surface temp, mass and luminosity of the sun?
Look at Barnard’s Star (Red Dwarf) and Spica (Blue Main Sequence). Write down the mass, luminosity and surface temperature and color for each.
Barnard’s Star:
Spica:
Does your data line up with the characteristics in the video?
PART 2
19. What determines how long a star lives? ______
20. Massive stars live longer or shorter lives? ______
Why?______
21. How long will our sun live for? ______.
22. Large, high mass stars measure their lifespan in only millions of years. The lowest mass star measures its life in ______years.
23. How old is the Universe? ______.
24. What determines how long a star lives its life on the Main sequence? ______.
25. If a star runs out of fuel, fusion stops holding the star up and ______wins.
26. Not only does the size of a star influence how long it will live, it also determines ______.
27. Massive stars explode while smaller ones are doomed to ______.
Our sun, a middle age lower mass, middle age star, has been burning through its hydrogen fuel. Scientists predict in 5 Billion years the hydrogen will run out and fusion will cease causing gravity to crush the star.
28. The gravity causes the core to become superheated by gravity to fuse Helium into ______to survive.
29. List what happens to these middle size stars in the last 10% of its life: ______.
30. Gravity causes the star to fall in on itself, but the star continues to exist because of the electrons repel each other causing a stellar remnant known as a ______.
I LIKE TO THINK ABOUT IT IN TERMS OF MAGNETS. LIKE POLES REPEL, FORCING THE MAGNETS OUTWARD