Seven Ages of Starlight

The Star Cycle

First Age

THE STAR IS BORN

 born from nebulae and consist mostly of hydrogen and helium gas. Surface temperatures range from 2000C to above 30,000C, and the corresponding colours from red to blue-white. The brightest stars have masses 100 times that of the Sun and emit as much light as millions of Suns. They live for less than a million years before exploding as supernovae. The faintest stars are the red dwarfs, less than one-thousandth the brightness of the Sun.

Second Age

ADULTHOOD

Gravity Vs. Nuclear Fussion

Gravity Pulls the star inwards trying to crumple it.
Nuclear Fussion- Expanding the star trying to explode it.

Third Age

RED GIANTS

 This is a large bright star with a cool surface. It is formed during the later stages of the evolution of a star like the Sun, as it runs out of hydrogen fuel at its centre. Red giants have diameter's between 10 and 100 times that of the Sun. They are very bright because they are so large, although their surface temperature is lower than that of the Sun, about 2000-3000 C. Very large stars (red giants) are often called Super Giants. These stars have diameters up to 1000 times that of the Sun and have luminosities often 1,000,000 times greater than the Sun.

Fourth Age

WHITE DWARFS

 White dwarfs are the shrunken remains of normal stars, whose nuclear energy supplies have been used up. White dwarf consist of degenerate matter with a very high density due to gravitational effects, i.e. one spoonful has a mass of several tonnes. White dwarfs cool and fade over several billion years.

Fifth Age

SUPERNOVAE

 This is the explosive death of a star, and often results in the star obtaining the brightness of 100 million suns for a short time. There are two general types of Supernova: Supernovae are thought to be main source of elements heavier than hydrogen and helium.

Type I Supernova
These occur in binary star systems in which gas from one star falls on to a white dwarf, causing it to explode.

Type II Supernova
These occur in stars ten times or more as massive as the Sun, which suffer runaway internal nuclear reactions at the ends of their lives, leading to an explosion. They leave behind neutron stars and black holes.

Sixth Age

NEUTRON STARS

 These stars are composed mainly of neutrons and are produced when a supernova explodes, forcing the protons and electrons to combine to produce a neutron star. Neutron stars are very dense. Typical stars having a mass of three times the Sun but a diameter of only 20 km. If its mass is any greater, its gravity will be so strong that it will shrink further to become a black hole.

Types of Neutron Stars

PULSARS AND MAGNETARS

Pulsars
a rapidly spinning neutron star that shoots jets of X-rays, radio waves, and sometimes gamma rays at very near the speed of light (186,000 mps) from its strong magnetic poles. This type of neutron star also has a powerful magnetic field.

 The observed time between their pulses is between 1.4 milliseconds and 8.5 seconds. Some pulsars have a rotational period as accurate as an atomic clock. A pulsar is best described as exactly analogous to a lighthouse in how it looks and behaves.

Magnetars
have an extremely powerful magnetic field, hence the name, when it decays it releases powerful amounts of X-rays and gamma rays.

A magnetar does not pulse beacons of radio or light energy from its poles like a pulsar. Like neutron stars and pulsars, a magnetar is no bigger than 12 miles in diameter but extremely dense with mass.

 They rotate very slowly compared to pulsars, although some do not as we will see later on. The closest discovered magnetar to Earth is 13,000 lightyears distant.

Magnetars have a relatively short life of around 10,000 years, after which they become inactive and essentially revert back to a neutron star.

Seventh Age

BLACK HOLES

 Black holes are believed to form from massive stars at the end of their life times. The gravitational pull in a black hole is so great that nothing can escape from it, not even light. The density of matter in a black hole cannot be measured. Black holes distort the space around them, and can often suck neighbouring matter into them including stars.

Epilogue

NEBULA

 A nebula is a cloud of gas (hydrogen) and dust in space. Nebulae are the birthplaces of stars. There are different types of nebula. An Emission Nebula e.g. such as Orion nebula, glows brightly because the gas in it is energised by the stars that have already formed within it.

 Planetary Nebula are the outer layers of a star that are lost when the star changes from a red giant to a white dwarf. In a Reflection Nebula, starlight reflects on the grains of dust in a nebula. The nebula surrounding the Pleiades Cluster is typical of a reflection nebula. Dark Nebula also exist.