Astronomy Short Essay
The amount of mass in a star is used to determine the size of the star, and the period it is likely to live. For instance, mass is everything for a massive star since it is filled with hydrogen and helium. They live fast and die as soon as they detonate as supernovae (Schwarzschild, 2015). The Wolf-Rayet – a massive star can amass up to ten time the mass of the sun as the study seeks to examine.
The evolutionary stage of The Wolf-Rayet star starts from the nebulae and evolve and live in the main sequence just like the low mass stars. However, a difference begins after the red giant phase. The temperature at the center of the star is heated up by carbon atoms that form by fusing with helium atoms. At the same time, the force of gravity attracts the atoms together in higher temperatures to generate oxygen and nitrogen. Later after only ions are left inside the core, fusion stops. Ohkubo (2009), explains no more energy is radiated from the core, thus beginning of the last phase; gravitational collapse. The temperature in the core gets extremely high to crush iron atoms. Concurrently, the nuclei repulse and overcome force gravity causing the center to recoil from the star in a shock wave, basically a supernovae explosion.
Notably, when the Wolf-Rayet encounters a supernovae explosion, a planet that survives the first stage of the Red Super Giant phase is incinerated. Either, when the planet is located from afar, it is likely to flung out into space as a rogue planet. Summarily, the fate of planets is that they all get charred off. Those that drift away into space. According to Jeans (2009), as the star gets rid of its mass in its death, it also loses grip. Therefore the star escapes getting pulled and being submerged into the star. However still, with the recession, the planets cannot avoid the solar winds that char their surfaces.
In order to observe the death of the Wolf-Rayet, or rather any other massive start, there are specific procedures to meet. Generally, the end of life for low mass stars occur peacefully unlike in massive stars. The massive stars undergo powerful explosions, which can make them outshine the brightness of the entire galaxy where they are situated. As such, we must conduct a comprehensive survey by a team of astronomers across the world. This fosters the ability to promote the next stages of the supernova. Undoubtedly, without more in-depth analysis, it becomes tricky to determine the explosions generated when the core of a massive star falls.
References
Schwarzschild, M. (2015). Structure and evolution of stars (Vol. 2379). Princeton University Press.
Ohkubo, T., Nomoto, K. I., Umeda, H., Yoshida, N., & Tsuruta, S. (2009). Evolution of very massive population III stars with mass accretion from pre-main sequence to collapse. The Astrophysical Journal, 706(2), 1184.
Jeans, J. (2009). Astronomy and cosmogony. Astronomy and Cosmogony, by James Jeans, Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2009.
