The Evolution of Stars

Paper Summary:

The paper relates that stars are born, live their stellar lives and then die. The paper then discusses how "protostars" can evolve into high-mass stars, intermediate mass stars and low-mass stars and when they finally stop burning, they die and form white, black, brown or red dwarfs. The paper concludes that while we know much about stars, we still do not know enough.

From the Paper:

"Stars twinkle and shine pretty in the night sky but they are actually complicated heavenly bodies. They are like us in that they are born, live their stellar lives, and then die. The early phases of a star's life begins when an "early phase of gravitational collapse," (Dasch) forms a "stellar embryo" (Dasch). Gas falls into the embryo, heating it up and when the embryo becomes warm enough, it begins resisting gravity. At this point, the embryo is called a "protostar" (Dasch). Grace Wolf-Chase maintains that this gas is "vast agglomerations of gas and dust" (Chase). Some of matter around the protostar begins to accumulate in a disk shape, rotating around it. Forces of gravity cause the disk to pick up speed and move toward the center. However, the gas and dust must slow down in order to fall onto the protostar."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Brown Dwarf Detectives. NASA Online. Site Accessed April 13, 2008.<http://www.nasa.gov/vision/universe/starsgalaxies/brown_dwarf_detectives.html>
• Dasch, Julius. "Stars." Earth Sciences for Students. New York: Macmillan Reference USA, 2007. Gale Science Resource Center Online. Site Accessed April 13, 2008. <http://galenet.galegroup.com/servlet/SciRC?ste=1&docNum=CV2640550211>
• Hall, Jeffrey. "Star Formation." Gale Encyclopedia of Science. Detroit: Gale Group, 2008. Science Resource Center. Site Accessed April 13, 2008. <http://galenet.galegroup.com/servlet/SciRC?ste=1&docNum=CV2644032118>.
• Heckert, Paul A. and Gilman, Larry. "Brown dwarf." Gale Encyclopedia of Science. Detroit: Gale Group, 2008. Gale Science Resource Center. Site Accessed April 13, 2008. <http://galenet.galegroup.com/servlet/SciRC?ste=1&docNum=CV2644030342>
• McGrath Kimberley A. "White Dwarf Star." World of Scientific Discovery. Detroit: Thomson Gale, 2007. Gale Science Resource Center. Site Accessed April 13, 2008.http://galenet.galegroup.com/servlet/SciRC?ste=1&docNum=CV1648500646

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