Explore tens of thousands of sets crafted by our community.
Stars: Classification and Life Cycle
20
Flashcards
0/20
Main Sequence
A stage in a star's life characterized by the fusion of hydrogen atoms to form helium, which occurs in the core.
Red Giant
A star that has exhausted hydrogen in its core and has begun to fuse helium into heavier elements.
White Dwarf
A small, dense stellar remnant that has ceased nuclear burning and emits light due to stored thermal energy.
Supernova
The explosive death of a star resulting in the ejection of its outer layers at high velocities.
Neutron Star
An extremely dense object composed mostly of neutrons, which remains after a supernova explosion of a massive star.
Black Hole
A region of spacetime exhibiting such strong gravitational effects that nothing—not even light—can escape from inside it.
Hertzsprung-Russell Diagram
A two-dimensional graph, in which the absolute magnitudes of stars are plotted against their spectral types (color).
Stellar Nebula
A cloud of gas and dust in space, serving as a nursery for new stars.
Protostar
A contracting mass of gas that represents an early stage in the formation of a star before nucleosynthesis has begun.
Spectral Class
A classification system for stars based on their temperature as determined by the characteristics of their spectral lines.
Luminosity
The total amount of energy emitted by a star, galaxy, or other astronomical object per unit time.
Absolute Magnitude
A measure of the luminosity of a celestial object, expressed as the apparent magnitude it would have if it were located at a standard distance of 10 parsecs from the observer.
Brown Dwarf
A substellar object that has a mass below that necessary to maintain hydrogen-1 fusion reactions in its core, typically less than 0.08 solar masses.
Red Supergiant
An aging massive star that has expanded and cooled substantially after exhausting its core hydrogen.
Wolf-Rayet Star
A rare, hot, and bright star that is losing its mass rapidly through a strong, stellar wind.
Helium Flash
A very brief thermal runaway nuclear fusion of helium into carbon in the core of a low mass star.
Black Dwarf
A theoretical stellar remnant, specifically a white dwarf that has cooled sufficiently that it no longer emits significant heat or light.
Planetary Nebula
An emission nebula consisting of an expanding, glowing shell of ionized gas ejected from red giants during their asymptotic giant branch phase.
Population I Stars
Stars with higher metallicity, typically found in the spiral arms of galaxies, that contain more elements heavier than helium.
Population II Stars
Stars with low metallicity, found in the bulges of galaxies and in globular clusters, and are among the first stars formed in the universe.
© Hypatia.Tech. 2024 All rights reserved.