Saturday, November 8, 2008

Life Cycle of the Sun

        Went on my evening walk and listened to an astronomy lecture about the life cycle of our Sun. To make a long story short it will go through a few phases after it falls off the main sequence five billion years from now; burn most of its hydrogen fuel as its diameter expands to form a Red Giant. Helium replaces hydrogen in the core. Hydrogen still fuses a layer around the core as it condenses and heats up. At 100 million Kelvin helium starts to burn in the core producing carbon and oxygen. While all this is happening the outer layers are being breathed out forming a planetary nebula. When all the helium is turned into carbon, the core collapses down into a White Dwarf with electrons packed tightly together (what is called electron degeneracy). Basically a White Dwarf is a diamond and does not fuse matter but shines under its stored heat.

No comments: