Star Life Cycle
This force pulls matter inward and helps form a star.
What is gravity?
This process combines smaller atomic nuclei to form a larger nucleus.
What is nuclear fusion?
A star's mass is one of the most important factors determining its ___.
What is its life cycle?
This must be extremely high inside a star for nuclear fusion to occur.
What is temperature?
Most of the hydrogen and helium in the universe were produced during this event/early period.
What is the Big Bang?
A star spends most of its life in this stage, where it fuses hydrogen into helium in its core.
What is the main sequence?
During a star's main-sequence stage, hydrogen nuclei are fused to produce this element.
What is helium?
Compared with a low-mass star, a high-mass star is generally this color/temperature on the main sequence.
What is hotter/bluer?
Fusion occurs primarily in this part of a star.
What is the core?
Stars take lighter elements and create these through nuclear fusion.
What are heavier elements?
This happens to a star's core when it runs out of hydrogen fuel.
What is begins to fuse Helium into Carbon.
This process describes the creation of new elements inside stars.
What is nucleosynthesis?
A high-mass star can produce more massive elements because its core can reach these conditions.
What are higher temperatures and pressures?
During fusion, some of the original mass is converted into this.
What is energy?
The elements produced by stars can be released into space and later become part of these objects.
What are new stars, planets, and other celestial objects?
Compared with a low-mass star, a high-mass star generally has a ___ lifespan.
What is a shorter lifespan?
Nuclear fusion in stars can transform lighter elements into these types of elements.
What are heavier elements?
Compared with low-mass stars, high-mass stars can fuse elements to this point in the periodic table.
What is heavier elements?
The energy produced by fusion travels outward from the core and eventually reaches the surface as this.
What is electromagnetic radiation/light?
A star's mass and its stage of life determine which elements it can produce through this process.
What is nucleosynthesis?
This is the general relationship between a star's mass and the rate at which it uses its nuclear fuel.
What is more massive stars use fuel faster?
What is supernova explosions and/or neutron star mergers.
Two stars begin with different masses. The star with greater mass will generally evolve this way compared with the lower-mass star.
**Hint** (Think about rate and life span)
What is it evolves faster and has a shorter life?
As a star's core becomes hotter during later stages, fusion can produce these elements from lighter elements.
What are increasingly heavier elements?
Final Jeopardy: The formation of new elements inside stars changes throughout a star's lifetime because this factor determines the temperature, pressure, and fusion processes occurring in its core.
What is the star's mass?