⭐ The Life of a Star

Stars, just like living things, are born, live for a very long time and in the end die. Let’s follow the life of a star!

It all starts with a nebula. A nebula is a giant cloud of gas and dust in space. It is mostly made of hydrogen and helium.

Gravity pulls the gas and dust together. As the matter squeezes closer, it heats up and a protostar forms.

When its centre is hot enough, the star starts to shine. Our Sun is a star like this. What happens next depends on the star’s mass.

Low-mass stars use up their fuel slowly, so they live for a long time. When the fuel runs low, they swell up into a red giant. They puff their outer layers into space and a hot core is left behind: a white dwarf.

High-mass stars are very hot and blue, and they burn their fuel fast, so their lives are short. In the end they become a red supergiant and blow apart in a giant explosion called a supernova.

After the explosion, what is left is either a super-dense neutron star or a black hole, which even light cannot escape.

In short: a star is born from a nebula. A low-mass star ends as a white dwarf. A high-mass star ends in a supernova, followed by a neutron star or a black hole. Mass decides everything! Now try it in Energy Train.