Spark image
Life and death of stars

During its life a star like the Sun converts matter into energy at an enormous rate, its mass reducing by some four million tons every second!

As time passes more and more of the hydrogen will be converted to helium and so the core of the star will run out of hydrogen. The outer layers of the star will collapse inwards, heat up and the star will expand. The star will grow to become a Red Giant, cooling as it expands to become a Red Giant.

Red Giants are huge stars, big enough to swallow up the orbit of Mars.

The core of the star will now start to fuse helium to make heavier elements, some of the outer layers of the star may be blown off to form a planetary nebula.

Then, as more fuel is used the Red Giant will shrink to become first a white dwarf and finally as its fuel is exhausted it will go out leaving the dark remains – a Black Dwarf.

 
 
 
© Keith Gibbs 2009