Star death

We have already worked on the final end stages of the core of a star: a white dwarf, a neutron star, and a black hole. However, we did not finish the discussion of black holes, so we turn to this subject, especially the question of whether there is any evidence for these strange objects.
We next consider what happens for small stars, especially the formation of planetary nebulae before a star forms a white dwarf. We also briefly discuss Type Ia supernovae, an explosive death possible for a white dwarf that gets a little too fat because it gains material from a companion star.
Big stars become type II supernovae. We will go over this in some detail. This discussion includes some of the evidence that these violent events really happen.

Stellar evolution is in CM Chapter 20. There is a general discussion in Sec. 20.1. The stages in the life of a solar mass star are discussed in CM Sec 20.2. The death of a solar mass star is in CM Sec. 20.3. The evolution of more massive stars is in CM Sec. 20.4. We will not cover the material on evolution of stars in binary systems in CM Sec. 20.6.

The end stages of stellar evolution are discussed in CM Sec. 20.3 (white dwarfs); 22.1 and 22.2 (neutron stars); and 22.5 and 22.8 (black holes).

ASTR 122 course home page

Updated 19 November 2007

Davison E. Soper, Institute of Theoretical Science, University of Oregon, Eugene OR 97403 USA