Name: _______________________ Pd: ___Date:____
EXTREME STARS
Introduction
1. Every star creates the basic ________________ for everything in the universe.
2. The sun is a ball of _________________________ gas that has been lighting our system for 4.6
billion years.
3. The sun is ____________________miles away and you could fit _____________Earths inside the
sun.
4. The largest star ever discovered is _______________________________ times larger than our
sun.
5. Stars burn in different ________________ (ex:____________, ________________,
_______________)
6. Some live alone, others orbit in __________. All come together in huge ____________________
Birth of Stars
1. All stars start life in the same way as clouds of dust and gas called _______________________
2. The dark parts of a nebula is where stars are being born but the clouds are so thick that normal
____________________
cannot see inside.
3. In 2004 NASA launched Spitzer Space Telescope which only sees __________
(_____________________).
4. Images from this telescope reveal glowing areas of heated ______________________ gas.
5. All you need to make a star is __________________________,
_____________________________ & ______________.
6. ______________________________ pulls gas and dust into a giant swirling vortex.
7. When matter is compressed it drives the ________________________ up.
8. Over 100s of 1000s of years the cloud gets thicker and forms a giant spinning ___________ larger
than our solar system.
9. At its center, ________________ crushes the gas into a super dense, super-hot ball.
10. Pressure builds until huge _______________________ burst out from the center.
11. Gravity keeps the pressure on, sucking more and more gas & dust particles that ______________
into each other generating more & more ________________.
12. Over the next ________________________ years, the young star gets smaller, brighter and
hotter.
13. When the temperature in its core reaches _______________________ degrees, atoms of gas
_____________ together releasing massive amounts of energy.
14. A star is born and it will shine for ________________ or _________________ or
______________________ of years.
A Life of Fusion
1. Albert Einstein’s theory proved that stars could tap into the energy inside _______________ of
hydrogen.
2. The secret of the stars is Einstein’s equation ________________.
3. Matter, which makes up our body, is concentrated ___________________.
4. It is possible to release this energy by smashing atoms together. It’s called _________________.
Sub atomic physics determines the nature of stars.
5. Hydrogen atoms naturally ____________ each other. Scientists have to use technology to force
then together.
6. The Tokomak machine heats the hydrogen atoms to ____________________ degrees. When hot
enough, the hydrogen atoms cannot avoid smashing into each.
7. When the hydrogen atoms smash into each other they __________, forming a new element,
________________ and a small amount of pure ________________.
8. The hydrogen gas weighs slightly more than the helium; __________ is lost in the process of
burning. That mass that is lost turns into _________________.
9. The machine can only maintain ___________ for a fraction of a ___________ but inside stars,
__________ continues for millions of years because of their __________.
10. The engine which drives a star is _______________.
11. Fusion at the core of a star generates ________________ force of a billion
________________________ every second.
12. Stars are not ripped apart because __________________ is compressing the outer layers.
13. __________________ and ______________ are in an epic battle. This power struggle plays out
over the entire life of a star and creates ________________.
14. Light travels at ___________________________but most stars are so far away that it takes
_____________, ____________ or even____________ of years to reach us.
15. Light from our sun takes ______________________ to reach us
Light’s Journey
1. When the sun fuses hydrogen into _________________ in its core, it creates a ____________ (a
particle) of light.
2. That photon gets slammed into other materials and gets re-directed. This means it can take
______________ of years for that new ray to get from the core of the sun to its surface.
3. As photons reach the surface, they heat up the outer layers of the sun. As the gases in the outer
layers heat up, they speed up and create powerful ________________ fields.
4. As the star _____________ these fields clash and burst through the surface: Giant magnetic
__________ erupt into space sending streams of ________________ particles deep into space.
5. This solar _________________ can damage _______________ and satellites.
6. The bigger the star the more _____________ the wind – if our star were the size of Eta Carinae it
would strip our atmosphere, __________ the oceans and _______ the surface.
The Death of an Average Star
1. From the moment of its birth, every star is destined to _______.
2. Its fuel will run out and then _____________ will win the battle with fusion, triggering events that
will destroy the star.
3. At the current rate the sun is burning the _______________ fuel in its core, it will run out in about
____________________ years.
4. The ________ layers will collapse as gravity wins over reduced fusion.
5. The ________ layers will expand as they heat up, increasing the size of the sun from
________________ of miles in diameter to ______________________ of miles in diameter
becoming a ______________________.
6. With no hydrogen left to fuse, the sun will fuse _____________ into ______________.
7. Energy waves will blow the _______ layers away into space.
8. All that will be left is an intensely hot, dense core (about the size of _________________) called a
__________________
9. Astronomers believe that the heart of this dead star is a core of _______________
The Death of a Giant Star
1. Giant stars live ______________, burn ______________ and die ____________.
2. Their destruction creates the _______________________________ of the universe.
3. Although it is only a few million years old, __________________________ is near death. It is
known as a ___________ _______________ giant with a mass __________ times that of the sun.
4. The gravity in its core is intense and so it manufactures ______________________ elements.
However, once it makes _______________, it is doomed.
5. __________ absorbs energy and causes fusion to stop allowing crushing gravity to take over. The
core collapses within ______________.
6. The outer layers slam down on the core and a huge ____________________________ is
generated; the most violent event in the universe.
7. In a few seconds the __________________ creates ________ energy than our sun will in its
lifetime.
8. The explosion Prof. Paul Drake re-creates in his lab fuels the fusion of the heaviest
_______________ (ex: ___________, _________________, _________________)
9. After the explosion, clouds of star dust material are sent into space and a ______________ star is
left behind.
The Origins
1. In the beginning, star dust nebulae did not exist. The first stars were born _________________
years after the Big Bang.
2. At that time the universe was dark and made of nothing but ________________ and
______________ , when _______________ worked on the gases, they formed the first stars.
3. The first generation of stars were barely stable and were ___________ and ____________ within
the blink of an eye practically.
4. The dust from those _______________ created the raw materials for what we find on Earth.
5. Everything that we see around us was once blasted out from the core of a ___________.
6. The atoms in our sun are _______________ (3rd or 4th generation).
7. The universe will end once the _____________________ is used up.
8. Trillions of years from now even the smallest, slowest burning stars will burn up: The age of
_________will be over.