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The Question
(Submitted January 02, 1999)
I was wondering what the types of stars were? I
only know a few, such as white dwarf, and red giant.
The Answer
About 90 percent of the stars lie in the H-R diagram, marked by the main
sequence:
http://zebu.uoregon.edu/~soper/Stars/hrdiagram.html (http://zebu.uoregon.edu/%7Esoper/Stars/hrdiagram.html)
A star shines by radiating energy from the nuclear reactions. Once a
star runs out of its fuel, it dies and becomes compact. The lifetime of a
star depends on its mass. High-mass stars evolve faster and die sooner
than low-mass stars. The most massive stars may live only a few million
years, and the lowest mass stars can live 100's of billions of years.
Low-mass stars die quietly, while high-mass stars die in tremendous
explosions (supernovae explosions). A star like our sun would die and end
as a white dwarf:
http://imagine.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/introduction/dwarfs.html
Stars about five to ten times more massive than our sun would explode and
form a neutron star. More massive stars turn into black holes:
http://imagine.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/ask_astro/neutron_star.html
http://imagine.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/ask_astro/black_holes.htm
Samar Safi-Harb & David Palmer
for Ask a High-Energy Astronomer
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