Nuclear Reactions in Stars and the Universe
Life Cycles of Stars
- birth in clouds of cold gas and dust
- main sequence: hydrogen burning; mass-luminosity relation
- helium burning
- very low mass stars: "immortal" brown dwarfs
- low mass stars:
- ejection of planetary nebula: Ring, Cat's Eye
- compact cinder: white dwarf
- high mass stars:
- cycles of contraction and burning
- gravitational collapse of iron core
- nucleosynthesis and the circle of life
Life Expectancies of Stars
- Laboratories: star clusters
young: open clusters
old: globular clusters Omega Cen M13
Supernova Explosions: Death of Massive Stars
- massive star structure before explosion
- explosions
- Ongoing event! SN 2011 fe (nickname: PTF 11kly) here and here, brightness history (lightcurve) here
- SN 1987A before/after, HST rings and time evolution, neutrinos detected by Kamiokande
- SN 1994D
- SN1572 (Tycho): Tycho's sketch in 1572; today
- SN 1054 (Crab): documented by Chinese and native American astronomers
- ejecta: Crab nebula; Veil nebula: zoom out, in, and further in
- compact cinders: Crab nebula X-ray zoom, Cas A neutron star, Guitar nebula--duck!
Supernovae and Cosmology
- SNIa light curve movie
- Supernova cosmology campaigns
- SN Ia digital discovery via subtraction
most distant examples
