The Deaths of Stars

1. 0 Note that the following lectures include animations and PowerPoint effects such as fly ins and transitions that require you to be in PowerPoint's Slide Show mode (presentation mode).

2. 0 The Deaths of Stars Chapter 13

3. 0 Guidepost • Perhaps you were surprised in earlier chapters to learn that stars are born and grow old. Modern astronomers can tell the story of the stars right to the end. Here you will learn how stars die, but to follow the story you will have to proceed with care, testing theories against evidence and answer four essential questions: • How will the sun die? • Why are there so many white dwarfs? • What happens if an evolving star is in a binary system? • How do massive stars die?

4. 0 Guidepost (continued) • This is a chapter of theory supported by evidence, and it raises an important question about how science works. • How are the properties of big things explained by the properties of the smallest things? • Astronomy is exciting because it is about us. As you think about the deaths of stars, you are also thinking about the safety of Earth as a home for life and about the ultimate fate of our sun, our Earth, and the atoms of which you are made.

5. 0 Outline I. Lower-Main-Sequence Stars A. Red Dwarfs B. Sunlike Stars C. Mass Loss from Sunlike Stars D. Planetary Nebulae E. White Dwarfs II. The Evolution of Binary Stars A. Mass Transfer B. Evolution with Mass Transfer C. Accretion Disks D. Nova Explosions E. The End of Earth

6. 0 Outline (continued) III. The Deaths of Massive Stars A. Nuclear Fusion in Massive Stars B. The Iron Core C. The Supernova Deaths of Massive Stars D. Types of Supernovae E. Observations of Supernovae F. The Great Supernova of 1987 G. Local Supernovae and Life on Earth

7. 0 The End of a Star’s Life When all the nuclear fuel in a star is used up, gravity will win over pressure and the star will die. High-mass stars will die first, in a gigantic explosion, called a supernova. Less massive stars will die in a less dramatic event, called a nova.

8. 0 Red Dwarfs Stars with less than ~ 0.4 solar masses are completely convective. Mass Hydrogen and helium remain well mixed throughout the entire star. No phase of shell “burning” with expansion to giant Not hot enough to ignite He burning

9. 0 Sunlike Stars Sunlike stars (~ 0.4 – 4 solar masses) develop a helium core. Mass Expansion to red giant during H burning shell phase Ignition of He burning in the He core Formation of a degenerate C,O core

10. 0 Mass Loss From Stars Stars like our sun are constantly losing mass in a stellar wind (solar wind). The more massive the star, the stronger its stellar wind. Far-infrared WR 124

11. 0 The Final Breaths of Sun-Like Stars: Planetary Nebulae Remnants of stars with ~ 1 – a few Msun Radii: R ~ 0.2 - 3 light years Expanding at ~10 – 20 km/s ( Doppler shifts)  Less than 10,000 years old Have nothing to do with planets! The Helix Nebula

12. 0 The Formation of Planetary Nebulae Two-stage process: Slow wind from a red giant blows away cool, outer layers of the star The Ring Nebula in Lyra Fast wind from hot, inner layers of the star overtakes the slow wind and excites it => Planetary Nebula

13. 0 The Dumbbell Nebula in Hydrogen and Oxygen Line Emission

14. 0 Planetary Nebulae Often asymmetric, possibly due to • Stellar rotation • Magnetic fields • Dust disks around the stars The Butterfly Nebula

15. 0 The Remnants of Sun-Like Stars: White Dwarfs Sun-like stars build up a Carbon-Oxygen (C,O) core, which does not ignite Carbon fusion. He-burning shell keeps dumping C and O onto the core. C,O core collapses and the matter becomes degenerate. Formation of a White Dwarf

16. 0 White Dwarfs Degenerate stellar remnant (C,O core) Extremely dense:1 teaspoon of WD material: mass ≈ 16 tons!!! Chunk of WD material the size of a beach ball would outweigh an ocean liner! White Dwarfs: Mass ~ Msun Temp. ~ 25,000 K Luminosity ~ 0.01 Lsun

17. 0 White Dwarfs (2) Low luminosity; high temperature => White dwarfs are found in the lower left corner of the Hertzsprung-Russell diagram.

18. 0 White Dwarfs (3) The more massive a white dwarf, the smaller it is! Pressure becomes larger, until electron degeneracy pressure can no longer hold up against gravity. WDs with more than ~ 1.4 solar masses can not exist! Chandrasekhar Limit = 1.4 Msun

19. 0 Mass Transfer in Binary Stars In a binary system, each star controls a finite region of space, bounded by the Roche Lobes (or Roche surfaces). Lagrange points = points of stability, where matter can remain without being pulled towards one of the stars. Matter can flow over from one star to another through the Inner Lagrange Point L1.

20. 0 Recycled Stellar Evolution Mass transfer in a binary system can significantly alter the stars’ masses and affect their stellar evolution.

21. 0 White Dwarfs in Binary Systems X-ray emission T ~ 106 K Binary consisting of WD + MS or Red Giant star => WD accretes matter from the companion Angular momentum conservation => accreted matter forms a disk, called accretion disk Matter in the accretion disk heats up to ~ 1 million K => X-ray emission => “X-ray binary”

22. 0 Nova Explosions Hydrogen accreted through the accretion disk accumulates on the surface of the WD. • Very hot, dense layer of non-fusing hydrogen on the WD surface Nova Cygni 1975 • Explosive onset of H fusion • Nova explosion

23. 0 Recurrent Novae In many cases, the mass transfer cycle resumes after a nova explosion. Cycle of repeating explosions every few years – decades.

24. 0 The Fate of Our Sun and the End of Earth • Sun will expand to a Red giant in ~ 5 billion years • Expands to ~ Earth’s radius • Earth will then be incinerated! • Sun may form a planetary nebula (but uncertain) • Sun’s C,O core will become a white dwarf

25. 0 The lifes of Massive Stars High-mass stars (> 8 Msun), live short, violent lives

26. 0 The Deaths of Massive Stars: Supernovae Final stages of fusion in high-mass stars (> 8 Msun), leading to the formation of an iron core, happen extremely rapidly: Si burning lasts only for ~ 1 day. Iron core ultimately collapses, triggering an explosion that destroys the star: A Supernova

27. 0 Type I and II Supernovae Core collapse of a massive star: Type II Supernova If an accreting White Dwarf exceeds the Chandrasekhar mass limit, it collapses, triggering a Type Ia Supernova. Type I: No hydrogen lines in the spectrum Type II: Hydrogen lines in the spectrum

28. 0 Observations of Supernovae Sometimes, the star which exploded as a supernova can be identified on images taken before the explosion.

29. 0 Observations of Supernovae Supernovae can easily be seen in distant galaxies. Several hundreds to thousands of years later, the ejected material from supernovae is still visible as Supernova Remnants.

30. 0 Supernova Remnants X-rays The Crab Nebula: Remnant of a supernova observed in a.d. 1054 Cassiopeia A The Veil Nebula Optical The Cygnus Loop

31. 0 Synchrotron Emission and Cosmic-Ray Acceleration The shocks of supernova remnants accelerate protons and electrons to extremely high, relativistic energies. “Cosmic Rays” In magnetic fields, these relativistic electrons emit Synchrotron Radiation.

32. 0 The Famous Supernova of 1987: SN 1987A Before At maximum Unusual type II Supernova in the Large Magellanic Cloud in Feb. 1987

33. 0 The Remnant of SN 1987A Ring due to SN ejecta catching up with pre-SN stellar wind; also observable in X-rays.

34. 0 Local Supernovae and Life on Earth Nearby supernovae (< 50 light years) could kill many life forms on Earth through gamma radiation and high-energy particles. At this time, no star capable of producing a supernova is less than 50 ly away. Most massive star known (~ 100 solar masses) is ~ 25,000 ly from Earth.