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11 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
What is the next stage in a star's life after the main sequence? |
Red giant |
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Suppose that a news item announces the discovery of a brown dwarf. What is it that has been discovered? |
An object too large to be a planet but too small to be a star. |
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Compared to the composition of the core of the early Sun, the composition of the gas at the core of a red giant star is very different. |
True because all H has been converted to He. |
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"Electron degeneracy" is the state when electrons are packed so tightly and under so much pressure that they cannot be compressed any more. |
True |
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What are the products of helium burning in a star? |
carbon and oxygen |
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The upper mass limit for white dwarf stars is about |
1.4 solar masses |
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What very important phenomenon frequently occurs in binary star systems where the stars are close together? |
Mass lost from one star is deposited on the other. |
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When a star leaves the main sequence and expands toward the red-giant region, what is happening inside the star? |
Hydrogen burning is taking place in a spherical shell just outside the core; the core itself is almost pure helium |
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The total time that the Sun will spend as a main-sequence star is |
about 10 billion years |
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Our Sun will end its "life" by becoming a |
white dwarf |
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The final remnant of the evolution of a red giant star that has ejected a planetary nebula is |
a white dwarf star |