Stars

ASTRONOMY

By Martin Meier
Astronomy

Stars
By Martin Meier

This ebook will be exploring the complex science

behind stars. Topics include star birth, star death,
different types of stars, star systems, and exciting
stellar phenomenon.
Table of Contents
1. What are Stars?
2. Star Creation
3. Nuclear Fusion
4. Star Structure
5. Stellar Flares
6. The Different Varieties of Stars
7. Star Death
8. Black Holes
9. Neutron Stars
10. Binary Star Systems

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Section 1
What are stars?
FOCUS QUESTIONS FOR THE TEXT
1. What are stars made of?
2. How can stars vary physically?
3. How many stars are there in the universe?
4. Is the Sun a star?
5. What process fuels a star?
6. How are stars created?
7. Do stars last forever?
If you look up at the night sky then you’ll see hundreds of them; stars. They
speckle the firmament with dots of faint light that can hardly be seen if looked for
in proximity to city lights down on Earth. Stars are the furnaces of our universe.
They create all of the elements that we see around us; all of the matter that make
up our planet and our own bodies. It seems wild, but we’re all made of stardust!
So what exactly is a star? The answer is quite simple actually. Stars are giant balls
of incandescent gas. The primary ingredient in the gaseous mixture that fuels the
burning of stars is hydrogen gas.
To the right is a model of a hydrogen atom (Fig. 1).
What makes hydrogen such a key candidate for
fueling stars is because it has only one electron.
The reason this is important is because stars are
powered by a process called nuclear fusion, but
we’ll return to that in a bit. Figure 1: Hydrogen atom
So stars are massive balls made primarily of hydrogen, you might be wondering
what can make stars distinct from one another. The primary parameter that
changes from star to star is its mass, or how much matter it’s made of. Our Sun,
which is a star, is an average sized star, but there are some stars that are many
times larger than it!
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Section 2

Star Creation

It’s incredible to think about the origins of stars; that is, they At some point in the process of interstellar gas clumping into
pretty much spontaneously form in the void of space if a few more dense regions, a particular portion of the cloud will begin to
certain conditions are met. The ingredients that go into star form into its own separate “pre-stellar glob” called a protostar.
formation are all found in what scientists refer to as the
Interestingly enough, there are objects in our own solar system
interstellar medium (fig. 2), which consists of extremely cold
that aren’t too different from protostars. Jupiter, for instance, is a
clouds of molecules that float around in space between stars.
planet that consists entirely of gas, like a protostar, but what
It’s ironic that the coldness of these makes Jupiter a planet rather than a star is its
clouds is an absolutely necessary mass. In fact, “failed stars,” referred to as
prerequisite in the formation of burning brown dwarfs, are the result of protostars that
hot stars. The cold temperature is so didn’t have enough mass to form into a star.
important because it allows unpaired
What makes makes Jupiter a planet and
atoms to form bonds, and
makes a failed protostar a brown dwarf is the
consequentially become more dense.
relative size of these objects. Brown dwarves
Density is key here because the force
must be somewhere between 10 to 100 times
that eventually compresses clouds of
the mass of Jupiter. Once a protostar has
interstellar medium into hot fusion
Figure 2: Interstellar medium sufficient mass however, a true star is born.
reactors is gravity.

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Section 3

Nuclear Fusion

It’s already been mentioned that stars are giant “furnaces”, and
that they need a minimum mass before that furnace kicks in. The Figure 3: the fusion of hydrogen into helium
process that fuels this massive burning of gas is nuclear fusion.
The minimum mass qualification must be met because nuclear
fusion can only take place under extremely high temperatures
and pressure.

Gravity is great at making both of these conditions be bet. With

all matter, there is a relationship between heat and pressure; as
the pressure goes up, so does the temperature, and vice-versa.
Imagine heating up a plastic container of food in a microwave. As
the contents gets hotter, the pressure inside increases, so we see
the container bulge outward. What happens in a protostar is the
increasing of gravitational force pulling more and more matter
into its center, and as this occurs pressure and temperature both
increase dramatically. The end result is a core of hot gas so
energized that the nuclei of atomic hydrogen bounce around
slamming into one another. The image to the right shows what
happens when two hydrogen nuclei slam into each with sufficient
force (fig. 3). Then end result is a new atom of helium; a more
dense atom about twice the mass of hydrogen. When atoms fuse
like this, massive amounts of energy are released.

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Section 4

Star Structure

At some point in the development of a Figure 4: internal structure of a star (our Sun in particular)
protostar, nuclear fusion kicks in and the
newly formed star begins to take on the
form of the image on the right (fig. 4).
Now officially classified as a star, the
gigantic spherical nuclear reactor
radiates heat, generated in its core from
nuclear fusion, through multiple different
layers. The radiative zone radiates heat
outwards towards the surface of the star,
while the convection zone features
swirling pockets of heated gas that
rotate cooler, more dense gas into the
star and hotter, less dense gas towards
the solar surface.

Generally, this picture will change discretely based on the mass towards the center of the star where the gravitational pull is the
and type of star, but many features stay the same. The structure strongest. The composition of the star’s layers progressively
of the stars layers is dictated by the heat transfer from the star’s changes as the core fuses hydrogen into larger elements, so the
core to its surface, and the most dense matter tends to fall star undergoes a physical change over time.

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Section 5

Stellar Flares
Figure 5.2: Solar flare with a massive coronal ejection
A stellar flare, commonly depicted on images of our sun where it
is called a solar flare, is an extra bright and energetic flash that
occurs on the surface of a star. These flares can eject massive
amounts of energy, electrons, and radiation out into space. When
this happens on the sun and the radiation bombards Earth, it
creates glow auroras in our atmosphere that we call the Northern
Lights (fig. 5.1).

Figure 5.1: Northern lights, or Aurora Borealis
The image above shows the dramatic size and the power that
solar flares can unleash. In some cases, the power of a solar flare
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can reach levels of 6 x 10 joules. That’s equal to 160 billion
megatons of TNT exploding in an instant!

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Section 6

The Different Varieties of Stars

Figure 6: Stellar classification by temperature and luminosity
By now you may have already guessed that not all stars are
created equally. If so, you are correct! The image to the left
illustrates the wide spectrum of stars that exist in our universe,
as far as we know at least (fig. 6). The middle line of stars that
runs from the lower right corner to the upper left corner is called
the main sequence of stars. Most stars fall on this line after they
form, and the regions of white dwarfs, giants, and supergiants
are main sequence stars that have changed shape and size at
some point in their lifetime.

Where a star initially falls on this main sequence spectrum is

dictated by how much mass the star has when it forms. Less
massive stars fall on red area in the bottom right corner, and they
are less bright and less hot than the more massive blue stars
towards the top left corner.

The lifetime of stars, indicated on the diagram in green, also

possesses a near proportional relationship with the mass of the
star. More massive stars burn for less time while smaller stars
outlive their larger counterparts by a great margin. The reason for
this peculiarity will be explored in the next section.

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Section 7

Star Death

In this universe, nothing lasts forever, and stars are no exception
to this rule. A star “dies” when nuclear fusion can no longer take
place in its core, which is typically caused by a star burning
through all of its atomic fuel. We learned previously that less
massive stars outlive their larger counterparts, but this seems
counterintuitive because larger stars have more hydrogen fuel to
begin with. The reality is that larger star, although they begin with
more hydrogen, also burn through it much quicker because of
their greater mass and heavier force of gravity. This greater burn
rate is also what makes larger stars both hotter and brighter than
smaller stars.
The explosion in a supernova event happens when a star’s core
collapses underneath it’s own immense gravitational pressure.
Right before this occurs, the atoms in the stellar core are so
closely packed that their electrons and protons, previously
separated, fuse into an even more dense ball of neutrons. The
star’s exterior then falls into the core and the energy released
from this shoots the stellar remnants into space in a giant
explosion, resulting in a nebula (fig. 8) of leftover gas and dust.

For all stars, no matter the size, density increases with time. This
makes sense because fusion is the process of adding smaller
constituents into combined, larger atoms. Although the process
of a star’s life doesn’t vary too much based on that star’s mass,
the way it perishes is drastically affected by it. Less massive
stars reach a certain density and then cease nuclear fusion,
shrinking in size and turning into white dwarfs, like our Sun will
do some day. For very massive stars however, the end manifests
itself in a cataclysmic explosion called a supernova.

Figure 8: Nebula leftover from a supernova

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Section 8

Black Holes

Figure 8: A computer rendering of a black hole with a blazing accretion disk

If there is anything in this universe more dramatic
and awe-inspiring than a supernova, then it would
have to be its potential aftermath: a black hole.

For much of scientific history, black holes have

eluded our detection, and even since their
discovery they’ve remained a puzzling enigma. By
definition, a black hole is an object with such a
powerful gravitational pull that not even light is fast
enough to escape its pull. So if we think about it,
black holes not only don’t emit light, but they also
suck in incoming light, making them very hard to
visually detect directly. Astronomers have been
able to detect them by instead observing stars and
other objects in such high speed orbits that the It’s hard to even imagine an object more mysterious than a black
gravitational field of that orbit has to be from something more hole. As far as we know, according to the laws of physics, there
massive and dense than even the largest stars. In fact, the is no way to learn about what resides within black holes for
largest black holes of all, called supermassive black holes, are certain because nothing, not explorers, probes, or even digital
expected to exist at the center of spiral galaxies, much like our transmission, can return after entering a black hole. What’s
own Milky Way Galaxy. inside? The world may never know.

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Section 9

Neutron Stars

Not all supernovas create black holes; in reality, only the largest Figure 9.2: Neutron star over Manhattan
supernovas have that capability. If a star is massive enough to
die in a gargantuan explosion, the stellar remnant might end up
being neutron star (fig. 9.1). Like previously stated in the
supernova section, when the electrons and protons of the core
atoms fuse together, they form a dense core composed of
neutrons. If the explosion isn’t large enough to compress that
mass into an object of black hole density, then the neutron ball
remains and is called a neutron star.

Figure 9.1: Neutron star

A neutron star, as you (or can’t) imagine, is incredibly dense. It is

truly some of the densest stuff in the universe. This is because
the core of a star, being the densest part of the star, comprises
most of the star’s mass, all of which get’s compressed into a ball
of neutrons. The above image show the volume of an average
neutron star on top of Manhattan Island for scale (fig. 9.2). Keep
in mind that the mass of our entire Sun, which dwarfs the Earth in
volume, is still less than the mass of this neutron star. Now
there’s some heavy science.

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Section 10

Binary Star Systems

Stars, contrary to common knowledge, do not always exists all Figure 10: A white dwarf absorbing mass from its pair in a binary system
alone at the center of solar systems like our own Sun does.
Curiously enough, stars can actually orbit one another in close
proximity. This phenomenon is called a binary star system.

Binary stars are actually more common than you’d think. In fact,
more often than not stars are actually found in these pairs, and
sometimes there can be even three or more stars! Our solar
system is a cosmic anomaly in this sense. If you’ve ever seen the
original Star Wars movie with the planet that experiences two
sunrises, then you have an idea of what it would be like to live in
a binary star solar system.

Binary stars are host to a variety of unique solar events, one of

which being a special type of supernova; however, this
supernova is not the result of a star meeting it’s demise. As is
illustrated to the right, binary stars orbiting one another in close
enough proximity can trade matter off of their surfaces (fig. 10).
In particular, the more massive star must be a white dwarf star,
which steals matter from a typical standard star. When enough
matter lands on the white dwarf surface, a explosion on the star’s
surface called a nova may occur.
The real excitement though happens when the white dwarf has
accrued enough mass to reach a critical limit, or 1.44 masses of
our own Sun. At this point, the white dwarf explodes in a
supermassive supernova called a Type 1a Supernova, one of the
largest explosions possible in our universe.

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References

"Star Formation." Star Formation. N.p., n.d. Web. 08 Dec. 2015.

http://abyss.uoregon.edu/~js/ast122/lectures/lec13.html

"The Stars." Zoom Astronomy. EnchantedLearning.com, n.d. Web. 08 Dec. 2015.

http://www.enchantedlearning.com/subjects/astronomy/stars/

Program: http://www.apple.com/ibooks-author/

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