11. Origin of the Elements

Joshua Barnes -- Fall 1999

Dark star crashes / Pouring its light into ashes / Reason tatters / The force extends from the axis / Searchlight casting / For faults in the clouds of delusion / Shall we go, you and I, while we can? / Through the transitive nightfall of diamonds -- Robert Hunter & Jerry Garcia.

Topics:

• Giant stars
• He burning
• Advanced reactions
• Degeneracy
• Chandrasekhar's limit
• Supernovae
• Abundances

Web Resources:

• The Ring Nebula: Space Telescope [source], Subaru [source]

  This is the remnant of an ordinary low-mass star, known as the Ring Nebula.

• Eta Carinae [source]

  This high-mass star, ejecting clouds of gas, is near the end of its short life.

• Rings around SN 1987a [source]

  The remains of a star whose explosion we saw in 1987 have been analyzed by spreading out the light with with a diffraction grating. The image reveals line emission from oxygen (green), nitrogen & hydrogen (orange), and sulfer (red).

• The Crab Nebula: visible light and X-rays [source]

  This remnant of a supernova explosion observed in 1054, now called the Crab Nebula, is an expanding cloud of metal-rich gas. In its center is a neutron star spinning 30 times per second.

• Oxygen-Rich Supernova Remnant [source]

  Wisps of oxygen-rich material (green & blue) from a 3000 year old supernova slam into interstellar gas (red).

Homework 11: Advanced Nuclear Burning, due 11/08. Answer.

Quiz 11: What Are These Stars? -- accompanying HR diagram