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Star Life Cycle
Page 1: Star Life Cycle, What’s out in Space?
- How is a star’s life cycle like a human’s life cycle?
- What is a nebula? Why are they important to a star’s life cycle?
Page 2: Protostars and the Nebula
- Watch the animation of how a star begins to form out of a nebula. What is a protostar?
- What causes the dust and gas to clump together and eventually turn into a protostar?
- What nuclear process occurs that marks the official “birth” of the star?
Page 3: Stars
- What is a star?
- Stars spend most of their lives as a main sequence star. What is a main sequence star?
- Complete the interactive lab. Click through the animations for each possible starting mass of a star. How does the starting mass of a star affect how long it is on the main sequence? (In other words, does a more massive star have a longer or shorter life on the main sequence?)
Page 4: Stars, Equilibrium, Hydrogen burning (fusion)
- What is equilibrium and why does a star want to reach equilibrium?
- Read through the rest of the info on this page.
- Test your knowledge with the Star Quiz (part 1) at the bottom of the page.
Page 5: Stars: The beginning of the end
- Read through the info on this page.
- Test your knowledge with the Star Quiz (part 2).
- What happens after the hydrogen burns out and the star begins to burn helium? What is the next stage of a star after main sequence?
Page 6: Stars: The End of a Star
- What happens to a low-mass star after it is a red giant? What stage is next?
- For medium-mass stars, what type of star does this become after the red giant stage?
- What is a supernova?
- What could happen to the largest mass stars? What could they become?
- Complete the interactive lab at the bottom of the page to see how different sized stars have different life cycles.
Page 7: Hertzsprung-Russell Diagram
- What two variables are graphed on an H-R diagram?
- What is the absolute magnitude of a star?
- Complete the interactive lab of the H-R diagram on this page.
- What are the two characteristics (temp and brightness) of a red giant in the upper-right corner of the graph?
- What are the two characteristics (temp and brightness) of a main sequence star in the middle of the graph?
- What are the two characteristics (temp and brightness) of a white-dwarf in the lower-left corner of the graph?
Page 8: Applications of the HR Diagram
- Complete the interactive lab.
Page 9: Interactive H-R Diagrams
- Complete the Interactive Lab.
- Complete “More HR Diagram Fun” activity & questions.