An expanding star at the end of its life, with an inert core in which fusion no longer takes place, but in which fusion of lighter elements continues in the shell around the core.
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Red Super Giant
A huge star in the last stages of its life before it explodes in a supernova
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White dwarf star
A very dense star formed from the core of a red giant, in which no fusion occurs
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Planetary nebula
The outer layers of a red giant that have drifted off into space, leaving the hot core behind at the centre as a white dwarf
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Electron degeneracy pressure
A quantum-mechanical pressure created by the electrons in the core of a collapsing star due to the Pauli exclusion principle.
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Chandrasekhar limit
The mass of a star’s core beneath which the electron degeneracy pressure is sufficient to prevent gravitational collapse, 1.44 solar mases
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Supernova
The implosion of a red giant at the end of its life, which leads to the subsequent ejection of stellar matter into space, leaving an inert remnant core.
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Neutron star
The remnant core of a massive star after the star has gone supernova and (if the mass of the core is greater than the Chandrasekhar limit) the core has collapsed under gravity to an extremely high density (similar to that of an atomic nucleus) as it
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Singularity
A one-dimensional point which contains a huge mass in an infinitely small space, where density and gravity become infinite and space-time curves infinitely, and where the laws of physics as we know them cease to operate
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Black hole
The remnant core of a massive star after it has gone supernova and the core has collapsed so far that in order to escape it an object would need an escape velocity greater than the speed of light, and therefore nothing not even photons can escape.
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Other cards in this set
Card 2
Front
A huge star in the last stages of its life before it explodes in a supernova
Back
Red Super Giant
Card 3
Front
A very dense star formed from the core of a red giant, in which no fusion occurs
Back
Card 4
Front
The outer layers of a red giant that have drifted off into space, leaving the hot core behind at the centre as a white dwarf
Back
Card 5
Front
A quantum-mechanical pressure created by the electrons in the core of a collapsing star due to the Pauli exclusion principle.
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