Page 205 - Cascade I SHPS School Magazine 2024

Life

ADVAITH
KRISHNA P V A
|

Cycle

of a Star

tars are the main source of energy in the whole heats up the star which prevents it from further
Suniverse. Have you ever wondered how stars are collapsing under the force of gravity. The fuel of the
born? star is the gas present in it. And its mass determines
The stars are born in very huge clouds called how rapidly it runs through its fuel, lower mass stars
molecular clouds which span hundreds of light years. burn longer, dimmer and cooler than massive stars.
They are cold which causes the gas to clump. This More massive stars must burn fuel at a higher rate
creates high density pockets. Some of these clumps to generate a higher amount of energy compared
collide against each other and collect more matter. to lower mass stars to keep them from collapsing
As the clumps grow bigger and bigger the gravi- under their own weight as they are very massive.
tational force will increase which causes them to Lower mass stars will live for a longer time than
collapse. When this happens, the friction heats up higher mass stars.
the material. This will eventually lead to the At the beginning of the end of a star’s life, it runs
development of a protostar, which is out of hydrogen to convert into helium. Energy
a baby star. produced by fusion creates pressure inside
At first, most of the the star that balances gravity’s tendency
protostar’s energy comes to pull matter together, so the core
from the heat released by starts to collapse. But squeezing
its initial collapse, until the core also increases its tem-
very high pressures and perature and pressure, making
temperatures in the star’s the star slowly puff up. However,
core cause hydrogen the details of the late stages of the
nclei to fuse together to star’s death depend strongly on
form helium. This process its mass. The atmosphere of a low
is known as nuclear fusion mass star will keep on expanding
which releases energy and until it becomes a subgiant or a giant

Cascade 205