ASTRON 100 Lecture Notes - Lecture 17: Super Giant, Silicon-Burning Process, Nucleosynthesis

• School: UMASS-Amherst
• Department: Astronomy
• Course: ASTRON 100
• Professor: Wilson Grant

Document Summary

Evolution phases of low mass stars: interstellar cloud main sequence star red giant planetary nebula white dwarf, red giant = star dying, white dwarf = ball of carbon. Survey question: main sequence stars fuse hydrogen into helium in their cores. The helium collects as an inert (no burning) gas in the core. Gravitational equilibrium: it"s a matter of balance: gravity wants to collapse the star (this is just the weight of the outer layers of the star) The death of a star starts in the core. Helium fusion begins at the center of a giant: while the exterior layers expand, the helium core continues to contract and eventually becomes hot enough (100 million. After helium fusion gets going : the sun will expand and cool again, becoming a red super giant, earth, cooked to a cinder during the first red giant phase (step.