ASTRON 2B03 Lecture Notes - Lecture 23: Triple-Alpha Process, Nuclear Fusion, Quantum Tunnelling
28 Aug 2016
School
Department
Course
Professor
Document Summary
Today, we"ll be talking about stars, starting with our sun. The sun is the star that we really know the most about. It"s a typical example of a low mass star, and is very typical of what types of stars are available in our galaxy (most are even less massive). Stellar longevity: a star dies when it runs out of fuel to burn. When it stops producing energy, it dies this depends on the mass of the star, and the luminosity. A bigger star has more material in it, and thus, potentially more fuel to burn (lives longer). Luminosity is also important, as the energy burned per unit of time may allow for the energy of the star to dissipate a lot faster. The lifetime of a star is proportional to m/l. We build models of stars that show how they will evolve for a given mass and luminosity.
