Stellar Evolution

Missing Star
Written by: Bryan Hansen, Brett Yonkvic, Pat Hartbeck

It all starts as a protostar, just like a human starts at the fetus stage. As gravity pulls on the atoms, there is a collision between the hydrogen atoms. This collision creates another essential force, pressure. Soon the blob gets bigger and bigger creating the photostar. The protostar will then turn into a star. The star must keep a balance between gravity and gas pressure. This star will keep contracting to get back the heat and energy it has lost and to stay alive. As this star grows older it gets bigger. The hotter the star the bigger it is. This star will soon become ill when it loses its balance between gravity and gas pressure. When the star died it was at Red Giant stage. In human terms it is a middle aged adult. When it’s a red star it means fusion is happening so fast that the gas are being pulled off the core and makes a red color. The star is large, but it has lost some of its atoms making it less as big.

So we all know the star died from a severe illness and we are ok with that. But lets say it didn’t die. The star would have had one more stage and would have been a white dwarf. In human terms it would have been old aged and soon to be dead. White dwarfs are tiny stars with big densities. A spoon full of white dwarf could weigh tons.

So that’s the story of the poor star. It had a long fun life. The only way it could have been better is if it wouldn’t have had to die before he saw his grandchildren. But looking back it was pretty good. Hey at least he got to be red! Who doesn’t want to be red!?