Astronomy C

[JCicc]

I'm from Penncrest.

[tad_k_22]

By that I think he meant middle-earth.

[Cheesy Pie]

I think that red dwarves, after proficently burning hydrogen for billions of years, slowly collapse into black dwarfs.
Sun-like stars become red giants, and fluctuate greatly in temperature and brightness. Then they collapse into white dwarves.
Large stars become red supergiants, which vary even more than red giants. Then they explode as supernovae. If the core of the star is about 1.4 to 3.2 times the mass of the sun, it becomes a neutron star. If the core is more than 3.2 solar masses, it collapses into a black hole.

Have I got this right?

[Infinity Flat]

I think that red dwarves, after proficently burning hydrogen for billions of years, slowly collapse into black dwarfs.
Sun-like stars become red giants, and fluctuate greatly in temperature and brightness. Then they collapse into white dwarves.
Large stars become red supergiants, which vary even more than red giants. Then they explode as supernovae. If the core of the star is about 1.4 to 3.2 times the mass of the sun, it becomes a neutron star. If the core is more than 3.2 solar masses, it collapses into a black hole.

Have I got this right?

Nothing there seems out of place off the top of my head.
Also, be sure to know what's being burned (and where) in a star during those various stages of its life.

[Cheesy Pie]

Ok. And I have this huge space book that has info on every planets and some satellites. It has info on stars, nebulas, supernova remnants, galaxies, and other cosmology. The only downfall is that it is really bulky. I forgot the title.

[QuantumLeaper]

We briefly went over the life cycle of a star in science a few weeks ago. Unfortunately, we did not touch on the concept of brown dwarves.

[FullMetalMaple]

I think the astronomy topic rotates back to stellar evolution next year.

Stellar evolution would be cool, but in my opinion there's not as much you can do with stellar evolution rather than galaxies.

Stellar evolution does sound fun (I blame the name), but I think the topic is supposed to remain galaxies. And I agree with EAST that there's more you can do with galaxies.

[Cheesy Pie]

We briefly went over the life cycle of a star in science a few weeks ago. Unfortunately, we did not touch on the concept of brown dwarves.

Neither did we. But we did an astronomy newsletter, and I wrote something about brown dwarves.

It is debated what a brown dwarf is. Sometimes it is considered a small star, a failed star, or something else. What do you guys think?

[JCicc]

Chaisson and McMillan (5th ed) say that brown dwarfs are "failed stars." Apparently, masses between 12 and 80 Jupiter masses are brown dwarfs; below 12 and there's no fusion at all. More than 80 Jupiter masses and hydrogen fusion takes place. In between these masses, a period of deuterium fusion takes place. You are right, however, about the debate, and I'm not sure that these limits are generally accepted.

[Cheesy Pie]

One: I thought it was 15 to 75 times Jupiter's mass.
Two: I once read that they were actual stars.