What is the end product of a low mass star?

Over its lifetime, a low mass star consumes its core hydrogen and converts it into helium. The core shrinks and heats up gradually and the star gradually becomes more luminous. Eventually nuclear fusion exhausts all the hydrogen in the star’s core.

What is the end of the life cycle of a low mass star?

For low-mass stars (left hand side), after the helium has fused into carbon, the core collapses again. As the core collapses, the outer layers of the star are expelled. A planetary nebula is formed by the outer layers. The core remains as a white dwarf and eventually cools to become a black dwarf.

What are the life stages of a low mass star?

Life Cycle of a Low Mass Star

• Step Four (White Dwarf) All that would be left is the carbon core.
• Step Three (Planetary Nebula)
• Step Two (Red Giant)
• Step One (Birth in the Stellar Nebulae)
• Step One (Main Sequence)
• Step Two (Protostar)
• Step Four (Neutron Star/Black Hole)
• Step Three (Main Sequence)

What is the end product of star?

A star of a few solar masses will ignite carbon fusion to form magnesium, neon, and smaller amounts of other elements, resulting in a white dwarf composed chiefly of oxygen, neon, and magnesium, provided that it can lose enough mass to get below the Chandrasekhar limit (see below), and provided that the ignition of …

When a low mass star nears the end of its life which of the following stellar objects are formed?

Answer: A planetary nebula is a cloud of gas and dust blown off a low-mass (less than 8 M®) star near the end of its life. It forms because the radiation pressure from the star blows off the star’s outer layers. Notice that a “planetary nebula” has nothing to do with planets; the term is left over from the 1780s.

What is the mass of a low mass star?

Today we will look at the life of low-mass stars, which are those with mass less than about 2 times the mass of the Sun (less than 2 solar masses). So the Sun is a low-mass star. All such stars follow the same basic pattern. The next higher category, intermediate-mass stars, have masses from 2 to 8 solar masses.

What happens at the end of the life of a small star?

Small stars, like the Sun, will undergo a relatively peaceful and beautiful death that sees them pass through a planetary nebula phase to become a white dwarf, which eventually cools down over time and stops glowing to become a so-called “black dwarf”.

What are the life stages of a low mass star quizlet?

Terms in this set (11)

• Low Mass Stars. Stars with a mass of less than 4 times that of the sun (2 x 10^30 kg)
• Stage 1: Main Sequence Phase.
• Stage 2: Hydrogen Exhaustion.
• Stage 3: Red Giant.
• Stage 4: Helium Flash.
• Stage 5: Horizontal Branch.
• Stage 6: Asymptotic Giant.
• Stage 7: Core-envelope Separations.

What happens at the end of a small stars life?

What are the 7 stages of a low mass star?

All stars, irrespective of their size, follow the same 7 stage cycle, they start as a gas cloud and end as a star remnant.

• Giant Gas Cloud. A star originates from a large cloud of gas.
• Protostar.
• T-Tauri Phase.
• Main Sequence.
• Red Giant.
• The Fusion of Heavier Elements.
• Supernovae and Planetary Nebulae.

What are the 3 end stages of star?

Three end stages of stars are:

• White Dwarf.
• Neutrons Star.
• Black Hole.

What happens to a low mass star when it dies?

Low mass stars like the sun in their dying stages shed their outer layers transferring most of their mass into the interstellar medium. Massive stars go out with a bang as supernovas ejecting heavy elements into the interstellar medium. Low mass stars end up as white dwarf stars and eventually black dwarf stars.

What happens at the end of the life cycle of a star?

For low mass stars, this is the final stage of their lifetime in which they generate energy via fusion. Once the helium and hydrogen shell fusion uses up all of the available fuel, the star’s life is effectively over. However, the star will still leave behind two visible remnants.

What is an example of low mass stellar evolution?

We are going to continue using a solar mass star as our example for low mass stellar evolution, but you should realize that the details of the evolution of stars of 0.5 solar masses or 5.0 solar masses deviate from the general description presented below. During the red giant phase of a star’s lifetime, the core is not in equilibrium.

Are white dwarfs the end state of low-mass stars?

Calculations showing that white dwarfs are the likely end state of low-mass stars were first carried out by the Indian-American astrophysicist Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar. He was able to show how much a star will shrink before the degenerate electrons halt its further contraction and hence what its final diameter will be ( Figure 23.2 ).