Short Questions about Stellar Evolution

  1. Why does chemical composition change most rapidly in the center of a star?

  2. Why do nuclei of elements other than hydrogen require higher temperatures to fuse?

  3. Suppose 2 stars form at the same time. They have the same masses and compositions. What can be said about the evolution of the two stars from that point forward?

  4. Why does the process of creating neutrons from protons and electrons reduce the ability of a Giant star to support the weight of the star? In other words, why does gravity have a bigger advantage once the protons and electrons fuse into neutrons?

  5. Main sequence stars of 5 MSun are though to evolve into 1 MSun white dwarfs. What happened to the other 4 MSun?

  6. Why would no pulses be observed from a rotating neutron star if its magnetic axis and spin axis were aligned?

  7. What does angular momentum have to do with the rapid rotation of neutron stars?

  8. Which of the following pairs of quantities can be plotted against each other to produce an H-R diagram?
    a) Temperature and Distance
    b) Temperature and Spectral Class
    c) Luminosity and Spectral Class
    d) Luminosity and Temperature
    e) Luminosity and distance
    f) distance and spectral class

  9. Why are most stars in the H-R diagram on the main sequence?

  10. How does the brightness of a giant star compare with the brightness of a main sequence star of the same spectral class?

  11. What evidence do we have that stars form in the "clumps" of Giant Molecular Clouds?