Star evolution
Stars are born, live and die like living beings; the only difference is that they do it in such a large time frame as to appear eternal and immutable. Therefore, if we want to study their lifecycle the only thing that we can do is to assume that all stars have a similar evolutionary process and pick a vast number of samples at different stages of their life span. Rather like observing a newborn, an adult and an old person to study man’s cycle.
Why do stars evolve? All life long a star has to put up with a titanic battle between the two main forces that govern it. If some conditions are modified and one prevails over the other the balance is lost, triggering chain reactions that modify the structure of the star leading to a new balance. Therefore, the evolution of a star will go through long stable phases alternated by short periods of instability when main evolutionary changes occur. Development of a star depends above all on its mass. The greater the amount of matter , the greater the amount of pressure necessary to oppose the collapse and therefore the greater the amount of fuel burned. Consequently, larger stars are brighter than the ones with a smaller mass, but they also live much less.
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23 February 2012
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Apparently the sensational discovery made by CERN researchers...
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28 January 2014
Gaia satellite scanning the sky
On December 19, 2013 the new satellite Gaia lifted off from the launching pad...
14 May 2014
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NASA’s Kepler Telescope, has discovered the first Earth-sized extrasolar planet...
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31 March 2014
A day on board the International Space Station
How astronauts spend their time in space?
17 July 2012
The importance of being Higgs
On 4 July 2012 the CERN Director General, Rolf Dieter Heuer...
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17 June 2014
Beacons in space
It is 1967, a young astrophysics student of the University of Cambridge...
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23 February 2012
Neutrinos: speed record?
Apparently the sensational discovery made by CERN researchers...
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28 January 2014
Gaia satellite scanning the sky
On December 19, 2013 the new satellite Gaia lifted off from the launching pad...
From the Multimedia section
Facts
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The comet’s tail
Comets are “dirty snowballs” that spend most of their life at the edges of the Solar System...
The definition of a dwarf planet
Astronomy, like all scientific disciplines, is continuously evolving...
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The cosmic microwave background radiation
In 1965, while studying the ground noise of a radio antenna...
Cosmic collision
When two galaxies start to approach, the tidal attraction forces deform their structures...
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The comet’s tail
Comets are “dirty snowballs” that spend most of their life at the edges of the Solar System...
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The definition of a dwarf planet
Astronomy, like all scientific disciplines, is continuously evolving...
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The comet’s tail
Comets are “dirty snowballs” that spend most of their life at the edges of the Solar System...
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The definition of a dwarf planet
Astronomy, like all scientific disciplines, is continuously evolving...