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What causes stars to turn into red giants or red supergiants?
In approximately 5 billion years, the sun will begin the helium-burning process, turning into a red giant star. When it expands, its outer layers will consume Mercury and Venus, and reach Earth. When stars morph into red giants, they change the habitable zones of their system.
Why does a star turn into a supergiant?
Supergiants develop when massive main-sequence stars run out of hydrogen in their cores, at which point they start to expand, just like lower-mass stars. They cannot lose enough mass to form a white dwarf, so they will leave behind a neutron star or black hole remnant, usually after a core collapse supernova explosion.
How do red giants form?
A Red Giant star is formed when a star like our sun, or one larger, runs out of its hydrogen fuel. This process now provides enough energy to stop the star from collapsing and actually pushes the outermost layers of the star out, making the star much larger than it origianlly started. The star is now a Red Giant.
Why are red supergiants red?
A red supergiant is an aging giant star that has consumed its core’s supply of hydrogen fuel. Helium has accumulated in the core, and hydrogen is now undergoing nuclear fusion in the outer shells. These shells then expand, and the now cooler star takes on a red color.
Which stars become red giants?
To become a red giant, a particular star must have between half our sun’s mass, and eight times our times our sun’s mass. Astronomers call such stars low- or intermediate-mass stars. So you can see that our sun is one of the stars that will inevitably, someday, become a red giant.
Why do some stars become super red giant quizlet?
Red Supergiants are created when the core runs out of hydrogen fuel supply and the star begins to collapse in on itself. The outer shells of hydrogen then begin to get hot enough to begin fusion.
What do red supergiants evolve into?
The most luminous red supergiants, at near solar metallicity, are expected to lose most of their outer layers before their cores collapse, hence they evolve back to yellow hypergiants and luminous blue variables.
What happens to a supergiant star at the end of its lifecycle?
Stars which are eight times or more massive than our sun – whether they are red giants or red supergiants – end their lives in a most spectacular way; they go supernova. A supernova is an explosion that occurs when the star runs out of fuel and fusion stops.
Do all stars become red giants?
In the same way, the expansion of a star’s outer layers causes the temperature at the surface to decrease. Over time, massive stars become red supergiants, and lower-mass stars like the Sun become red giants.
What color are supergiant stars?
Blue
Blue supergiants are supergiant stars (class I) of spectral type O. They are extremely hot and bright, with surface temperatures of between 20,000 – 50,000 degrees Celsius. The best known example is Rigel, the brightest star in the constellation of Orion.
Why does a star turn into a red super giant?
The outer shell of the star is still mostly hydrogen and begins to expand, even larger than the star initially was, and cool which causes it to glow red, hence the “red giant” phase. How big it becomes as a red giant depends on the star’s initial size. The bigger it was at first, the bigger the red giant.
Which is the best example of a supergiant star?
Betelgeuse and Antares are the best known examples of a red supergiant. Stars which are eight times or more massive than our sun – whether they are red giants or red supergiants – end their lives in a most spectacular way; they go supernova.
Properties of Red Supergiants. According to Wien’s law, the color at which a star radiates most strongly is directly related to its surface temperature. So, while their cores are extremely hot, the energy spreads out over the interior and surface of the star and the more surface area there is, the faster it can cool.
Can a high mass star become a yellow supergiant?
In fact, it is common for high mass stars, once their fusion process passes beyond hydrogen, that they oscillate back and forth between different forms of supergiants. Specifically becoming yellow supergiants on their way to becoming blue supergiants and back again.