Lifecycle of Stars

Papa Fox

Can someone gove me a general rule of thumb as to which stars go supernove and which become red giants and then white dwarfs?

Marc

Roughly, if a star has greater than 8 times the mass of our Sun it will go supernova (type II supernova). Stars like the Sun will become first red giants then white dwarfs, never going supernova. There is an exception to this however:

If the white dwarf happens to be part of a binary star system it may suck the mass of its companion star and if/when it grows large enough it then goes supernova (type I supernova).

jessekaye

Stars are born in nebulae. Huge clouds of dust and gas collapse under gravitational forces, forming protostars. These young stars undergo further collapse, forming main sequence stars.

Stars expand as they grow old. As the core runs out of hydrogen and then helium, the core contacts and the outer layers expand, cool, and become less bright. This is a red giant or a red super giant (depending on the initial mass of the star). It will eventually collapse and explode. Its fate is determined by the original mass of the star; it will become either a black dwarf, neutron star, or black hole.
or to better understand star' life cycle

barry.armstead

Good work Jessekaye.

Baz.

Lifecycle of Stars

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