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How does mass influence how a star lives and dies?

How does mass influence how a star lives and dies?

Explanation: If the star has smaller mass than the Sun, it can fuse hydrogen into helium for atleast a trillion years. The larger a star, the shorter its life because it fuses hydrogen into helium much more quickly. A star whose mass is more than 20 Suns will run out of hydrogen in only a few hundred million years.

What determines whether a star will end its life cycle as a black hole or?

Where a star ends up at the end of its life depends on the mass it was born with. Stars that have a lot of mass may end their lives as black holes or neutron stars. A low or medium mass star (with mass less than about 8 times the mass of our Sun) will become a white dwarf.

Do star vary in mass How does this mass affect the life cycle of a star?

A star’s life cycle is determined by its mass. The larger its mass, the shorter its life cycle. When the hydrogen supply in the core begins to run out, and the star is no longer generating heat by nuclear fusion, the core becomes unstable and contracts.

What a medium mass star becomes at the end of its life?

THE DEATH OF A LOW OR MEDIUM MASS STAR After a low or medium mass or star has become a red giant the outer parts grow bigger and drift into space, forming a cloud of gas called a planetary nebula. The blue-white hot core of the star that is left behind cools and becomes a white dwarf.

Does the mass of a star determine its end?

A star’s life cycle is determined by its mass. The larger its mass, the shorter its life cycle. As the main sequence star glows, hydrogen in its core is converted into helium by nuclear fusion.

What stages lead to the final stage of a small mass star?

Stage 9 – The remaining core (thats 80% of the original star) is now in its final stages. The core becomes a White Dwarf the star eventually cools and dims. The stars shine steadily until the hydrogen has fused to form helium ( it takes billions of years in a small star, but only millions in a massive star).

How do high mass stars end their lives?

A massive star ends with a violent explosion called a supernova. The matter ejected in a supernova explosion becomes a glowing supernova remnant.

How do low mass stars end their lives?

Low mass stars use up their hydrogen fuel very slowly and consequently have long lives. Low mass stars simply die by burning up their fuel to leave behind white dwarfs (contracted low mass stars about the size of the Earth) which themselves cool and contract further to black dwarfs.

How does the life cycle of a massive star differ from a low mass star?

On the right of the illustration is the life cycle of a massive star (10 times or more the size of our Sun). Like low-mass stars, high-mass stars are born in nebulae and evolve and live in the Main Sequence. However, their life cycles start to differ after the red giant phase. A massive star will undergo a supernova explosion.

What happens to a star at the end of its life?

The core is stabilized and the end is near. The star will now begin to shed its outer layers as a diffuse cloud called a planetary nebula. Eventually, only about 20% of the star�s initial mass remains and the star spends the rest of its days cooling and shrinking until it is only a few thousand miles in diameter.

How does the mass of a star keep it intact?

For a star, everything depends on its mass. Throughout their lives, stars fight the inward pull of the force of gravity. It is only the outward pressure created by the nuclear reactions pushing away from the star’s core that keeps the star “intact”.

How to teach about the life cycle of a star?

Teachers can use the Powerpoint presentation provided to give students a full lesson about the life cycle of stars before attempting the activity (available at http://lco.global/education/starinabox ). Open the lid of your ‘Star in a Box’. The graph is a Hertzsprung-Russell diagram, where a star’s luminosity is plotted against its temperature.