The Fate of the Stars
How three stars from one cloud end
Three stars are born together in one cloud of gas. The 40-Sun star becomes a black hole, the 15-Sun star explodes as a supernova and leaves a neutron star and pulsar, and the Sun-like star leaves a planetary nebula and a white dwarf. Follow 15 scenes in the real order the stars die.
Watch from the start in 3DChapter 1 · Three stars are born
Three stars light up together in one cloud of gas. Each one gathers a different amount.
- 1 Where stars are born
A cold cloud of gas and dust drifting in space
View in 3D → - 2 Three stars are born
Gas gathers in three places and the stars switch on
View in 3D → - 3 Mass decides fate
The heavier the star, the sooner it dies
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Chapter 2 · The heaviest star: a black hole
The 40-Sun star burns through its fuel in about 5 million years. It is the first to die.
- 4 A restless giant
Running out of fuel, it throws off its outer layers
View in 3D → - 5 The star that could not explode
A center so heavy that it pulls the gas back in
View in 3D → - 6 A black hole is born
A dark hole that not even light escapes
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Chapter 3 · A heavy star: supernova and neutron star
The 15-Sun star lives about 12 million years. It ends in one of the biggest explosions in the universe.
- 7 Red supergiant
The 15-Sun star swells up huge and red
View in 3D → - 8 A core choked with iron
Layers like an onion, and an iron center that gives way
View in 3D → - 9 Supernova
The outer layers bounce off and the star blows apart
View in 3D → - 10 Neutron star
A star the size of a city, heavier than the Sun
View in 3D → - 11 Pulsar
A spinning star that sweeps beams like a lighthouse
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Chapter 4 · A Sun-like star: white dwarf
The lightest star lives more than 10 billion years. Its ending is quiet.
- 12 Red giant
The Sun-like star swells up red
View in 3D → - 13 Planetary nebula
No explosion: the outer layers drift away like smoke
View in 3D → - 14 White dwarf
Left at the size of Earth, slowly cooling
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Chapter 5 · What the stars leave behind
How the three stars end up, and what is left after them.
- 15 What the stars leave
Scattered gas becomes the stuff of new stars
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More in the series
Lifetimes and sizes are typical values from models of how stars change (approximate). The black hole horizon size and the teaspoon masses are calculated with official constants. Sizes, distances and speeds in the 3D view are a rough sketch.