There are different processes, depending on the type (and particularly mass) of the star. Red Giants are actually a stage in the life cycle of large stars. Our star (the sun) is a yellow dwarf, and as it burns out its first stage, in 4 to 5 billion years, it will expand into a red giant. Our star is putting out massive amounts of energy, by "burning" hydrogen into helium via nuclear fusion. The heat released in this constant state of fusion is the only thing keeping our star from collapsing in on itself, because the gravity is so great. Once all of this fuel is consumed, gravity will regain its leverage over the star, pulling it back inward. The power of the gravity causes fusion again with the new metallic materials within the burnt out sun, which causes it to expand outwards with its dying breath. It is believed that the rim of the red expansion will nearly reach our Earth, or possibly consume it.
Not all red giants will explode. Smaller ones, like our sun will become, will simply collapse into a dense white dwarf, eventually fading out to a brown dwarf and extinguishing as a black dwarf star. The Chandrasekhar Limit for stellar "explosions" is about 1.4 solar masses, or 1.4 times the mass of our sun. Stars that large and larger will "nova" or shed a lot of material in the final throes of the red giant stage, before they collapse into white dwarf stars.
The small population of stars in the range from 8 to 25 solar masses will not become white dwarfs, but will instead explode as supernovas, extremely powerful blasts which compress atomic nuclei into elements heavier than iron, and spraying them out far beyond the perimeter of the progenitor star. These stars do not collapse into a white dwarf but instead leave behind an enormously dense, rapidly spinning remnant known as a neutron star. Neutron stars are essentially atomic nuclei--atoms a quarter mile across that weigh as much as a star 1.5 to 3 times the size of our sun. Clumps of neutronium (degenerate matter, neutrons packed together as close as they can get) that are smaller than that are unstable and therefore do not exist.
After stars larger than 25 solar masses expand into red giants and complete the fuel consumption cycle, they also collapse and burst into supernovas, but the resulting remnant is even denser than neutronium. These stellar remnants pinch out of normal space, forming what are known as "black holes," since their "surface" escape velocity exceeds the speed of light.
Our sun's expansion into the red giant stage is expected to occur gradually four to five billion years from now over a period of about 80 million years. It would be difficult to describe this expansion as an "explosion." The contraction into a white dwarf will probably occur faster than that. Not all red giant stars will explode--only sufficiently massive ones.
The larger a star is, the shorter its life time. Stars that will nova could burn a billion years before doing so. Really big stars could go from birth to cataclysmic death in as little as a million years. The primary factor in determining the length of time between birth (fusion ignition) and death is stellar mass.
Neutronium, hyper-dense atomic nuclear material stripped of all electrons.
The oldest stars are typically red dwarfs, which are small, cool, and faint stars that have long lifespans. White dwarfs are the remnant cores of low to medium mass stars, not the oldest. Giant stars are intermediate stage stars that have evolved away from the main sequence.
Red giants. By the way, what if it was a white star.
Many stars are massive enough to form a red giant and then either a white dwarf or neutron star. The best calculations we can do now indicate that one needs at least ten times the mass of the sun to form a black hole. Such stars are not rare.
It is called a white dwarf. It is the penultimate stage of a star the size of the Sun, which progresses with age from a yellow or orange star, to a red giant, to a white dwarf, and ultimately (after an immensely long period of time) a black dwarf. (There are no confirmed black dwarf stars because their formation may take much longer than the current age of the universe.)
Neutronium, hyper-dense atomic nuclear material stripped of all electrons.
well it depends on the star. not all stars explode. small to medium sized stars just go into a planetary nebula after they swell up to a red giant then the bigger stars do explode, they have a super nova after the swell up into a super giant. but dont worry i star will not explode... its a really small star. --- nichole brooks :)
yes
When compared to the other stars, the Red Giant Star are very minute. There are other stars that are very large by far as compared to the Red giant stars.
Big stars
No, red giant stars are not the largest stars in the universe. There are stars known as supergiant and hypergiant stars that are even larger than red giants. These stars can be hundreds to thousands of times larger than our Sun.
In stars.
when Dwarf Stars run out of hydrogen they form Red Giant stars, then from that they become White dwarf stars when the outer layers shed, forming a planetary nebula.when giant stars or supergiant stars run out of hydrogen they form red supergiant stars
Red stars are usually giant stars that are on the brink of death. It is said to be on its last stages of stellar evolution.
In the constellation Cetus, there are several red giant stars. These are stars that have exhausted their core hydrogen and expanded in size. One notable red giant in Cetus is Menkar, also known as Alpha Ceti.
Red giant stars.
Star - not dying White-dwarf, dying Red-Giant, near the end but will collapse or explode in a while Stable star - haven't heard that term, but doesn't sound like it Galaxy - a collection of stars