Stellar evolution

In astronomy, stellar evolution is the sequence of changes that a star undergoes during its lifetime, the millions or billions of years during which it emits light and heat. Over the course of that time, the star will change radically.

The later years and death of stars

Geriatric low-mass stars

What happens after a low-mass star exhausts its hydrogen is not directly known: the universe is around 13.7 billion years old, which is less time (by several orders of magnitude, in some cases) than it takes for the fuel to be exhausted. Current theory is based on computer modelling.

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Some stars may fuse helium in core hot-spots, causing an unstable and uneven reaction as well as a heavy solar wind. In this case, the star will form no planetary nebula but simply evaporate, leaving little more than a brown dwarf.

Related Topics:
Solar wind - Planetary nebula - Brown dwarf

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But a star of less than about 0.5 solar mass will never be able to fuse helium even after the core ceases hydrogen fusion. There simply isn't a stellar envelope massive enough to bear down enough pressure on the core. These are the red dwarfs, such as Proxima Centauri, which live for hundreds of billions of years. When nuclear reactions eventually cease in their cores, they will continue to glow weakly in the infrared and microwave part of the electromagnetic spectrum for many billions of years.

Related Topics:
Red dwarf - Proxima Centauri - Electromagnetic spectrum

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Mid-sized stars

Once a medium-size star (between 0.4 and 3.4 solar masses) has reached the red giant phase, its outer layers continue to expand, the core contracts inward, and helium begins to fuse into carbon. The fusion releases energy, granting the star a temporary reprieve. In a Sun-sized star, this process will take approximately one billion years.

Related Topics:
Red giant - Helium - Carbon

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Helium burning reactions are extremely sensitive to temperature, which causes great instability. Huge pulsations build up, which eventually give the outer layers of the star enough kinetic energy to be ejected as a planetary nebula. At the center of the nebula remains the core of the star, which cools down to become a small but dense white dwarf, typically weighing about 0.6 solar masses, but only the volume of the Earth.

Related Topics:
Kinetic energy - Planetary nebula - White dwarf

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White dwarfs

Main article: white dwarfs

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White dwarfs are stable because the inward pull of gravity is balanced by the degeneracy pressure of the star's electrons. (This should not be confused with the electrical repulsion of electrons, which maintains the volume of normal matter, but is a consequence of the Pauli exclusion principle.) With no fuel left to burn, the star radiates its remaining heat into space for many millions of years.

Related Topics:
Degeneracy pressure - Pauli exclusion principle

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In the end, all that remains is a cold dark mass sometimes called a black dwarf. However, the universe is not old enough for any black dwarf stars to exist.

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If the white dwarf's mass increases above the Chandrasekhar limit of 1.4 solar masses, then electron degeneracy pressure fails and the star collapses. Mass transfer in a binary system may cause such an increase in mass. This causes the white dwarf to be blasted apart in a type Ia supernova. These supernovae may be many times more powerful than the type II supernova marking the death of a massive star. Hence, no white dwarf more massive than 1.4 solar masses can exist; electron degeneracy pressure isn't strong enough.

Related Topics:
Chandrasekhar limit - Binary system - Supernova

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If a white dwarf forms a close binary system with another star, hydrogen from the larger companion may accrete around and onto a white dwarf until it gets hot enough to fuse in a runaway reaction, although the white dwarf remains below the Chandrasekhar limit. Such an explosion is termed a nova.

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Supermassive stars

After the outer layers of a star greater than five solar masses have swollen into a gigantic red supergiant, the core begins to yield to gravity and starts to shrink. As it shrinks, it grows hotter and denser, and a new series of nuclear reactions begin to occur. These reactions fuse progressively heavier elements, temporarily halting the collapse of the core.

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Eventually, as the star progresses through heavier elements on the periodic table, silicon fuses to iron-56. Until now, the star has been maintained by these energy-liberating fusion reactions, but iron cannot release energy through fusion; instead, iron fusion absorbs energy. Once this occurs, there is no further energy outflow to counteract the enormous force of gravity, and the interior of the star collapses nearly instantly.

Related Topics:
Periodic table - Silicon - Iron-56

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What happens next is not clearly understood http://www.mpa-garching.mpg.de/HIGHLIGHT/2003/highlight0306_e.html. But whatever it is can cause a tremendous supernova explosion in a fraction of a second http://www.mpa-garching.mpg.de/HIGHLIGHT/2001/highlight0102_e.html.

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The accompanying surge of neutrinos starts a shock wave while the continuing jets of neutrinos blast much of the star's accumulated material—the so-called seed elements, lighter than and including iron—into space. As some of the escaping mass is bombarded by the neutrinos, its atoms capture them, creating a spectrum of heavier-than-iron material including the radioactive elements up to uranium. Without supernovae, no elements heavier than iron would exist.

Related Topics:
Neutrino - Shock wave - Uranium

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The shock wave and jets of neutrinos continue to propel the material away from the dying star and off into interstellar space. Then, streaming through space, the material from the supernova may collide with other cosmic debris, perhaps to form new stars, planets or moons, or to serve as raw materials for a vast variety of living things.

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Modern science does not have a clear understanding of the actual supernova explosion mechanism, nor what exactly remains of the original star. There are, however, two possiblities:

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Neutron stars

Main article: neutron star

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It is known that in some supernovae, the intense gravity inside the supergiant forces the electrons into the atomic nuclei, where they combine with the protons to form neutrons. The electromagnetic forces keeping separate nuclei apart are gone (proportionally, if nuclei were the size of dust motes, atoms would be as large as football stadiums), and the entire core of the star becomes nothing but a dense ball of contiguous neutrons or a single atomic nucleus.

Related Topics:
Electron - Proton - Neutron

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These stars, known as neutron stars, are extremely small—no bigger than the size of a large city—and are phenomenally dense. Their period of revolution can be extremely rapid, with some spinning at over 600 revolutions per second. When these rapidly rotating stars' northern or southern magnetic poles are aligned with the Earth, a pulse of radiation is received each revolution. Such neutron stars are called pulsars, and were the first neutron stars to be discovered.

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Black holes

Main article: black holes

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It is widely believed that not all supernovae form neutron stars. If the stellar mass is high enough, the neutrons themselves will be crushed and the star will collapse until its radius is smaller than the Schwarzschild radius. The star has then become a black hole.

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Black holes are predicted by the theory of general relativity. According to classical general relativity, no matter or information can flow from the interior of a black hole to an outside observer, although quantum effects may allow deviations from this strict rule. The existence of black holes in the universe is well supported, both theoretically and by astronomical observation.

Related Topics:
General relativity - Quantum effect

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However, questions still remain. Current understanding of stellar collapse is not good enough to tell whether it is possible to collapse directly to a black hole without a supernova, if there are supernovae which then form black holes, or what the exact relationship is between the initial mass of the star and the final object that remains.

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