Chapter 9

The Formation and

Structure of Stars
 The Interstellar Medium (ISM)

•Gas: ~75% H, 25% He, traces of “metals”

•1% “dust” (silicates, carbon, heavy elements coated with ice,
About the size of the particles in smoke)
•150 m average distance between dust grains

•“Dense” => ~10 to 1000 atoms/cm3

•“Thin” ~ 0.1 atoms/cm3
 Structure of the ISM
The ISM occurs mainly in two types of clouds:

• HI clouds:
Cold (T ~ 100 K) clouds of neutral hydrogen (HI);
moderate density (n ~ 10 – a few hundred atoms/cm3);
size: ~ 100 pc

• Hot intercloud medium:

Hot (T ~ a few 1000 K), ionized hydrogen (HII);
low density (n ~ 0.1 atom/cm3);
gas can remain ionized because of very low density.
3 types of nebula
1. Emission
2. Reflection
3. Dark

Q: Why do emission
nebula look red and
reflection nebula blue?
Evidence for the ISM

We see absorption in elements

where the background stars are
too hot to form these lines
Narrow width (low temperature;
low density)
Multiple components (several
clouds of ISM with different
radial velocities)

=> Comes from the ISM

Interstellar reddening

Q: Why do
astronomers
rely heavily on
IR
observations?
Q: How do we know the ISM exists?
 The Various Components of the
Interstellar Medium

Infrared observations reveal the X-ray observations reveal the

presence of cool, dusty gas. presence of hot gas.
Stellar formation from the ISM:

Must be triggered by
high mass stars –
• Give off intense
radiation
• Explode as SNs

Collapsing cloud
can form 10 to
1000 stars
• Association
• Cluster
SN_triggered_ssc2004-04v2.wmv
 The Contraction of a Protostar

Q: Why do you think there’s a lower limit on the mass of a main-seq.

star?
 The Contraction of a Protostar

Sun: ~30 million years

15 M: 160,000 years
0.2 M: 1 billion years
From Protostars to Stars

Star emerges
from the
enshrouding
dust cocoon

Ignition of H
 He fusion
processes
 Protostellar Disks and Jets – Herbig-Haro Objects
Q: What are the bipolar flows evidence of?

Herbig-Haro Object HH34

 Globules

Bok globules:

~ 10 – 1000
solar masses;

Contracting to
form protostars
 Observations of star formation:

Evaporating gaseous globules

(“EGGs”): Newly forming stars
exposed by the ionizing radiation
from nearby massive stars
200 solar mass star
N 11B
V838 Mon

Trifid
Tarantula

N 49
The Source of Stellar Energy
Stars produce energy by nuclear fusion of
hydrogen into helium.
Q: How does the sun fuse H to He?

In the sun, this

happens
primarily
through the
proton-proton
(P-P) chain
The CNO Cycle

Happens in stars
> 1.1 M
More efficient that
the P-P chain.
Requires high T
(>16 million K)

Q: Why does the

CNO require a
higher temp.
than the P-P
chain?
Fusion into Heavier Elements
Fusion into elements
heavier than C, O:

requires high
temperatures (>600
million K);
occurs only in very
massive stars (more
than 8 solar masses).
 Stellar structure
Conservation of mass: dM
 4 r 2 
Weight of each shell = total weight dr

dL
Conservation of energy:  4 r 2  e
E(out) = E(from within)
dr

dP GM
Hydrostatic equilibrium:  2 
Pressure balances gravity dr r

Energy transport: dT 3  L

Describes flow of energy dr 16 ac T 3 r 2
Hydrostatic Equilibrium
Imagine a star’s interior
composed of individual
shells

Within each shell, two

forces have to be in
equilibrium with each other:

Gravity, i.e. the

Outward pressure weight from all
from the interior layers above
 Hydrostatic
Equilibrium (II)
Outward pressure force must
exactly balance the weight of
all layers above, everywhere
in the star.
This is why we find stable stars on
such a narrow strip (main sequence)
in the Hertzsprung-Russell diagram.

Pressure-temperature thermostat

Q: How does the P-T thermostat control

the reactions in stars?
 Energy Transport
Energy generated in the star’s center must be transported to the surface.
Inner layers of the sun: Outer layers of the
sun (including
Radiative energy photosphere):
transport
Convection

Basically the same

structure for all stars
close to 1 solar mass.

Q: Why is convection in
stars important?
 Stellar Models
The structure and evolution of a star is determined by the laws of

• Hydrostatic equilibrium
• Energy transport
• Conservation of mass
• Conservation of energy

A star’s mass (and chemical

composition) completely
determines its properties.

…why stars initially all line up along the main sequence, and
why there’s a mass-luminosity relation….
The Life of Main-Sequence Stars
Stars gradually
exhaust their
hydrogen fuel.
They gradually
becoming brighter,
evolving off the
zero-age main
sequence (ZAMS).
Lifetime of a main-sequence
star (90% of total life is on
main-seq.)

fuel M 1
  3.5  2.5
rate of consumption M M
The Lifetimes of Stars
on the Main Sequence
 The Orion Nebula:
An Active Star-Forming Region
 The Trapezium
less than 2
million years old Infrared image: ~ 50
very young, cool, low-
X-raymass
image: ~ 1000
stars
very young, hot stars

The Orion Nebula

 Gas blown
away from
protostars
Kleinmann-Low
The Becklin- nebula (KL): Cluster
Neugebauer object of cool, young
(BN): Hot star, just protostars
reaching the main detectable only in
sequence the infrared
IR

IR + visual

B3 B1 Spectral
types of the
B1 trapezium
O6
stars

Protostars with protoplanetary disks