Sage-Tips

Are iron stars possible?

Only a possibility if protons do not decay. An iron star is a hypothetical type of compact star that could occur in the universe in the extremely far future, after perhaps 101500 years. The formation of these stars is only a possibility if protons do not decay.

Will Earth be able to sustain life if it remained in its position and the sun was a massive star?

Jagadheep: No, the Earth will not be able to support life if the Sun becomes a giant star. Giant stars have large radii as their name implies. The Sun’s luminosity and radius have been increasing since it started life and will continue to gradually increase in this manner for another 4.5 billion years or so.

What do you think will happen if there were no massive explosions of stars in the universe?

If no stars were massive enough to explode, and they just cooled off instead, the universe would be a very different place indeed. The supernova explosion not only generates and ejects new elements, it also disperses all of the elements created during the life of the star.

Can a star freeze?

A white dwarf star actually freezes first in the center, where the density is highest, to become a solid mixture of carbon and oxygen — so packed that the elements form a crystal-like arrangement. Then the rest of the star gradually freezes from the inside out until the whole star becomes frozen.

What is the Black Hole Era?

The Black Hole Era, which is predicted to last from about 1040 to 10100 (10 duodecillion to 1 googol) years after the Big Bang, spans an unimaginably long stretch of time, even for astronomical timescales. Imagine a universe with no bright stars, no planets, and no life whatsoever — that’s the Black Hole Era.

What will happen to life on Earth when the sun becomes a red giant?

In approximately 5 billion years, the sun will begin the helium-burning process, turning into a red giant star. When it expands, its outer layers will consume Mercury and Venus, and reach Earth. Either way, life as we know it on Earth will cease to exist.

Is supernova a dying star?

A supernova is a massive explosion of a dying star. The event occurs during the last evolutionary stages of a massive star, which is dying. The explosions are extremely bright and powerful. The star, after explosion, turns into a neutron star or a black hole, or is completely destroyed.

Can a star burn up without a planet inside it?

In a nutshell: No, unless conditions radically changed within the planet from without the planet, enough to compress the cheeze right out of the core, thus causing the required temperature to begin the process of thermonuclear fusion, which is what drives a star’s “fuel-burning”.

Is it possible for a planet to become a star?

It’s possible, but not likely. By definition, a star has enough mass to heat up its interior enough to cause fusion reactions which in turn generate the energy we see as light. Planets do not have enough mass for this to happen. For a planet to become a star, it has to somehow acquire a lot of mass.

Does it take a lot of mass to form a star?

A star forms when enough hydrogen or helium collect in on spot to raise the pressure in the core high enough to trigger nuclear fusion. On earth, we use atomic bombs to generate that kind of pressure and heat, so as you can imagine, it takes a fair amount of mass to do it. Yes, in principal.

What happens when a star becomes a protostar?

According to NASA, this collapsing material grows hotter and denser, forming a ball-shaped protostar. When the heat and pressure in the protostar reaches about 1.8 million degrees Fahrenheit (1 million degrees Celsius), atomic nuclei that normally repel each other start fusing together, and the star ignites.