AST201H1 Lecture Notes - Lecture 10: Helium Flash, Red Giant, Main Sequence

• School: UTSG
• Department: Astronomy & Astrophysics
• Course: AST201H1
• Professor: Marija Stankovic

Document Summary

Best learn about the life cycle of people by bringing home the crowds on the street. More massive stars take less time to form! Sun starts to shrink release gravitational potential energy. Release gravitational potential energy ignite hydrogen shell burning. Hydrogen shell burning is so intense that it floods the outer layers of the sun with more energy than they receive. The sun while on main sequence, the sun as a red giant. This will be about 100 million years after leaving the ms. After 100 million years on the horizontal branch, the sun"s core will run out of helium. Carbon core starts to shrink electrons in the core get closer together forced together by gravity but electron degeneracy pressure. Helium shell burning generates enough energy to blow the outer layers of the sun off into space, forming a planetary nebula. More mass more gravity higher core density can fuse heavier elements.