ScienceVerseLearning path: Stellar evolution
The concepts to learn before Stellar evolution, in order. Each step links to its page and, where one exists, its quiz.
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Your path
- StarsDirect prerequisite
A massive, luminous sphere of plasma held together by its own gravity, generating energy in its core through nuclear fusion — mainly the fusion of hydrogen into helium. Stars form from collapsing clouds of gas and dust, shine for millions to billions of years depending on their mass, and eventually exhaust their nuclear fuel, ending their lives as white dwarfs, neutron stars, or black holes depending on their initial mass.
- Stellar evolutionYour goal
Stellar evolution is the life story of a star, from its collapse out of a cold cloud of gas and dust, through millions to billions of years of steady hydrogen fusion on the main sequence, to its end as a white dwarf, a neutron star or a black hole. A star's mass decides almost everything: how fast it uses its fuel, how long it lives, which elements it can build and how it dies.
Where to go next
Concepts that build directly on Stellar evolution:
- Black holes: A black hole is a huge amount of matter packed into so small a space that, inside the boundary called the event horizon, nothing — not even light — can escape. Black holes form when the cores of very massive stars collapse, and supermassive ones sit at the centres of most large galaxies. Although they give out no light themselves, they have been detected through orbiting stars, X-rays, gravitational waves and, since 2019, images of their shadows.