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Stars Questions

11/8/2017

76 Comments

 
Post a good question here that you still have about Stars and Elements. They should be mainly 'why' questions?  Not just factual questions. You will be answering one of these as part  of this process.  Post your questions in comments. 
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76 Comments
Ray Silverman
11/8/2017 08:10:17 am

Do the stars burn all hydrogen and turn it to other elements? Does that mean hydrogen will burn out?

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Sam Thompson
11/8/2017 08:12:04 am

how do they know half the stuff they show in the video, is it a guess or do they have actual proof? How do they know anything about the distance of the stars?

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Bryant
11/29/2017 07:43:34 am

The idea of the ladder is to start with nearby objects like stars. We can measure their distances using a method called parallax. Back in the 90s a satellite called Hipparcos used parallax to measure the distance to thousands of stars. Once you know how far away a star is you can calculate how bright that star is.

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Daniel Yurkanin
11/8/2017 08:12:23 am

What happens to a Black Hole after its life? Does it leave anything behind?

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Claire Bicak
11/14/2017 09:08:28 pm

A Black Hole never ends, according to modern scientists. The Black Hole is the death of a large mass star. Therefore the strong gravitational pull is all that is there. However it is not "left behind" because a Black Hole can not die.

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Matthew Basaldua
11/8/2017 08:12:30 am

How do they know that carbon is the killer of stars?

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Devon Bodine
11/13/2017 07:53:03 am

Iron is the killer of stars not carbon.

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John Winder
11/8/2017 08:12:31 am

Do we know what a neutron star is really made of (what materials)?

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Ethan Vernon
11/14/2017 06:36:04 pm

Neutron stars are made up of highly compacted neutrons. Neutron stars are made up of neutrons from all elements if that makes sense.

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Claire Bicak
11/8/2017 08:13:30 am

How can scientists recreate a star on Earth, because it is nothing like space?

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Cole Norah
11/13/2017 07:53:52 am

Scientists use a huge machine to heat temperatures to immense heat and fuse together protons like a star.

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Sofa Hopper
11/8/2017 08:13:42 am

What make Iron particles different from the rest making it so they can't fuse?

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Mara Sullivan
11/13/2017 08:52:59 am

Stars can't reach a high enough temperature (unless if a supernova) to fuse iron. Iron also absorbs energy.

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Jaclyn Huntzinger
11/8/2017 08:13:59 am

Can a star's light still travel to Earth even after it dies?

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maddy raveling link
11/13/2017 08:06:02 am

The odds that a star will die while its light is already on its way to earth is really small. For this to happen the star would need to be super duper close to the end of its life. So yes, it could happen but the chances that it does is really small.

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Cole Norah
11/8/2017 08:14:05 am

Why is a neutron star so dense?

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jaclyn h
11/13/2017 08:01:22 am

The remaining matter continues to collapse under gravity. This forces protons and electrons to squish together and become neutrons. The particles squishing together increases its density

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Noah Lange
11/14/2017 09:32:51 am

The remaining matter continues to collapse under gravity, forcing electrons and protons to be squashed together and become neutrons.

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Tristan Gray link
11/14/2017 05:09:53 pm

A Neutron star is so Dense because all the Remaining matter inside a star continues to collapse, under gravity, forcing electrons and protons to be pushed together and become neutrons to make it so dense.

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luke harper
11/8/2017 08:14:19 am

can a sun be made out of a black hole?

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Morgan kaye
11/13/2017 07:50:27 am

No

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Makena Lau
11/8/2017 08:15:03 am

If all stars have varying masses and elements, how do scientists know the rate that stars burn through hydrogen and how can they collect data to predict when a star will die?

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Maybel From
11/14/2017 08:42:34 pm

The hydrogen atoms inside the star collide together which creates heat which also create visible light. This is the time we can see the stars. This heat creates pressure forcing the atoms outside the star, but gravity pulls them together, the star burns out once there is a balance of pressure pushing and the pressure of gravity pulling them together, so when the star runs out of energy or fuel.

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Quinton Potter
11/8/2017 08:15:26 am

Why do some stars form as high mass stars and low mass stars if they start they same way? Why some do some form smaller than others?

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Alyssa Lammi
11/15/2017 09:04:50 am

Stars either form as high or low mass starts depending on the amount of matter they form from. Little matter or less matter leads to low mass starts and lots of matter leads to high mass stars.

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Morgan kaye
11/8/2017 08:15:34 am

How long do black holes live?

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Sam Thompson
11/13/2017 07:53:03 am

Well Morgan! It depends on the size of the black hole, it takes at least 67-100 years for a small black hole (with the mass of the sun) to die out or evaporate. The bigger black hole could live for much longer but not forever

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Devon Bodine
11/8/2017 08:15:51 am

How do we know V.Y. Canis Majoris is 1 billion times bigger than the sun

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Connor Martin
11/8/2017 08:16:45 am

After a supernova can there be a Neutron star and a Black Hole at the same time?

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Tristan Rabena
11/20/2017 03:17:05 pm

No, that is not possible. The neutron star/black hole is the remnant of the dead star's core. Only one can occur at a time.

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Maddy Raveling link
11/8/2017 08:17:14 am

Why does iron take energy from the star? Why does it need it?

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Ray Silverman
11/13/2017 07:49:47 am

It doesn't, it just can't be fused, but the star doesn't "know" that so it tries until it runs out of energy.

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Tajen Wallen
11/8/2017 08:17:47 am

How and why is a white dwarf formed?

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Zach Hall
11/29/2017 10:08:56 pm

The red dwarf star sheds its outer layers and forms a planetary nebula, the star leaves behind its core or in other words a white dwarf.

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Matthew Basaldua
11/8/2017 08:18:32 am

I meant how do they know iron is the killer of stars, not carbon.

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Mason Gronewald
11/13/2017 08:52:46 am

Well Matthew, Scientists know that iron is the killers of stars because iron burns up energy so fast that the star will die out. Carbon occurs earlier on and the stars will usually die in seconds after it produces iro.

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Bryant
11/8/2017 08:20:08 am

When scientists tried to recreate the supernova, how do they actually prove that what they are doing is exactly what happened in the universe?

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Tryon Kaess
11/8/2017 08:21:49 am

Why is it that, one sugar cube size of a white dwarf can be so dense and heavy that it acts like Thor's hammer and drives through the ground?

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Tristan Rabena
11/8/2017 09:00:25 am

The white dwarf wasn't worthy

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Ana Gallegos
11/8/2017 08:25:11 am

Is it possible for Nebulas to create too many stars at once?If so what would happen?

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Tristan Rabena!
11/8/2017 08:59:10 am

What might happen if two or more stars were to form very close to each other... so close that their gravitational pull draws them to collide? What would happen next?

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Olive O'Riordan
11/8/2017 09:14:19 am

If a star turned into a white dwarf would it have a much stronger gravitational pull because of its density?

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Alyssa
11/9/2017 11:11:22 am

How did they come up with a black dwarf star? Why does there need to be a black dwarf star?

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Mara Sullivan
11/9/2017 02:33:41 pm

What would happen if two black holes were too close to each other?
Will we ever be able to find out more about black holes?

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Emma Schanbacher
11/9/2017 04:42:18 pm

What makes two chemical elements want to fuse together?

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Mason Gronewald
11/10/2017 05:24:45 pm

Is there another way for a star to be other than a Neutron star after a black Hole occurred?

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Colby Ramsey
11/11/2017 07:40:07 pm

Why is light considered the fastest thing in the universe if the universe expanded at something greater than that speed? Wouldn't there be something else that would be faster?

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jaedan johnson
11/13/2017 08:02:16 pm

The expansion of the universe can be faster than light because the edge of the universe doesnt carry any information (which is defined as 'anything that differentiates on thing from another) whereas light has information, as it is energy.

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Ethan Vernon
11/12/2017 12:45:59 pm

How can Iron kill a star with in seconds while the actual star its self took millions of years to form ?

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Noah Lange
11/12/2017 12:51:24 pm

Why is a white dwarf planet so dense?

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jaedan johnson
11/12/2017 02:17:38 pm

How do they know how hot the core of a star is?

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Riley cappelletti
11/12/2017 04:16:04 pm

why are black holes so dangerous and how do we know that they are dangerous?

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Tajen Wallen
11/13/2017 08:01:43 am

Black holes are only dangerous if you get to close. As long as you stay away from its event horizon, it won't harm you. Scientists use telescopes and satellites that travel in space, to learn more about what is happening in the universe.

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Cesar Ramos
11/12/2017 06:39:09 pm

How do we know how stars where created?

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Alex Ramsey
11/13/2017 07:50:17 am

Why didn't different elements come out of the big bang if in was hot enough like a star?

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Emma Niemela
11/13/2017 08:41:13 am

how did scientists come up with the theoretical black dwarf? what evidence do they that leads to this theory?

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Ava Brodie
11/13/2017 08:42:54 am

How long do scientists think it would take for a white dwarf to become a black dwarf?

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Tristan Rabena
11/20/2017 03:45:43 pm

Well, to start off, the reason a black dwarf star is theoretical is because the Universe is not old enough to have even produced one. A white dwarf will have had to cool down to the point of no longer emitting any heat or light at all, but this process would take an estimated 13.8+ billion years (which is how old the Universe is).

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Faith Wallace
11/13/2017 08:43:00 am

How did we come up with the idea of black dwarfs if we have not witnessed one?

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Tristan Rabena
11/20/2017 03:31:27 pm

Well, the idea of a black dwarf is theoretical, so we don't know if they really are real or not. But we do know that a white dwarf star is real, and we know that eventually, it would cool down. By that time, it will be so cold that it won't even emit any light, so it would become "black". But this would take so long, that we have no way of knowing if it would ever really occur.

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Erik Davies
11/13/2017 08:43:11 am

How do scientists know what kills stars?

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Jillian Cook
11/13/2017 08:46:28 am

Why is there a giant diamond inside of a white dwarf?

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Taylor Maw
11/13/2017 08:48:35 am

Is it possible for a black hole to be large enough and powerful enough to end the universe?

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Tristan Rabena
11/20/2017 04:06:16 pm

Luckily, no. Chances are, a black hole could not even grow to the size to swallow an entire galaxy. But black holes CAN grow. For a black hole's gravity to come into effect, an object must come extremely close. Then by absorbing the nearby object's mass of gas and dust, the black hole will increase in size, and revolving disks of gas will grow around it. But there is a point where the black hole would no longer be able to sustain the mass of the gas disks encircling it, and that gas would collapse into stars.

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`trey trefry
11/13/2017 08:49:48 am

Whats the closest star ever to explode near earth

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Tristan Rabena
11/20/2017 04:23:38 pm

Nearest supernova: 2.5 million years ago, 150 light years away

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Duncan Eisler
11/13/2017 08:50:08 am

What is the minimum mass for a star? A maximum?

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Tristan Rabena
11/25/2017 12:27:59 pm

Minimum= About .08 solar masses. Any less than that, and a star cannot even begin the nuclear fusion.

Maximum= About 150 solar masses. Any more than that, and the star will immediately collapse in on itself and become a black hole/neutron star/white dwarf.

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Quinn Stone
11/13/2017 08:51:35 am

Can Anything have more mass than a black hole?

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Tristan Rabena
11/20/2017 03:14:39 pm

As far as we have been able to observe, no, nothing can have more mass than a black hole. A black hole's mass is so great that it's gravitational pull prevents light itself from escaping. And that is exactly what black hole's are known for, nothing else has gravity as powerful.

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Tristan Gray
11/14/2017 04:59:32 pm

What is the process of Star formation after fusion dies out?

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Maybel From
11/14/2017 08:35:38 pm

Does a star gain mass in order to create a black hole?

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Makena Lau link
11/14/2017 08:47:22 pm

A black hole is the remnant of a collapsed high mass star. However, in the years before the supernova explosion, the star actually loses a fraction of its mass. After the supernova explosion, usually only the dense compressed mass of the core is left, therefore the star does not gain mass to make a black hole.

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Zach Hall
11/29/2017 10:11:41 pm

How long does it take for a black hole to form?

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Branndon Scheibe
12/5/2017 07:21:50 pm

Why do some stars high mass stars form black holes and some don't?

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Mari Delgado Phillips
12/19/2017 01:42:39 pm

why do massive stars create black holes?

Reply



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    Mr. Ben Tomlisson

    The Father of MSHS Big History
    tomlissonb@svsd410.org

    • “Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak, it’s also what it takes to sit down and listen.' (Winston Churchill)


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