AST201H1 Lecture Notes - Lecture 15: Nuclear Fusion, Planetary Nebula, Solar Mass

• School: UTSG
• Department: Astronomy & Astrophysics
• Course: AST201H1
• Professor: Bryan Gaensler

Document Summary

Dividing line between low-mass stars and high-mass stars is 8 solar masses. With the end of becoming a white dwarf and planetary nebula. When a high-mass star gets to a carbon core, its outer layers do not blow of. Rather, the carbon is hot enough to start burning making oxygen. So now there"s another shell, a carbon-burning shell. Then this keeps coninuing, with oxygen burning neon: then magnesium, then silicon, etc. etc. Gets more and more layers as the life goes on: resuling in hydrogen burning helium all the way out on the edge of the star. Nuclear fusion: is combining nuclear paricles together to make a diferent element e=mc^2, taking mass to make energy. Nuclear ission: spliing a nucleus apart to make diferent elements. The two pieces made weigh less than before, with the missing weight being energy. Anywhere on the graph going down makes fusion makes energy, while going up means ission makes energy.