What happens during the protostar stage?

Stars begin to form from clouds of gas in space. The cold temperatures and high densities (compared to elsewhere in space, but would be considered a vacuum on Earth) of these clouds allow gravity to overcome thermal pressure and start the gravitational collapse that will form a star.

What is the life cycle of a protostar?

An object is considered a protostar for as long as material is still falling inward. For our Sun, and stars of the same mass, the protostar phase would have ended after approximately 100,000 years. After this, the protostar stops growing and the disk of material surrounding it is destroyed by radiation.

What are the stages of stellar evolution?

All stars, irrespective of their size, follow the same 7 stage cycle, they start as a gas cloud and end as a star remnant.

Giant Gas Cloud. A star originates from a large cloud of gas.
Protostar.
T-Tauri Phase.
Main Sequence.
Red Giant.
The Fusion of Heavier Elements.
Supernovae and Planetary Nebulae.

How are protostars formed?

How is a Protostar Formed? Inside a nebula, there are areas where gravity causes dust and gas to “clump” together. As these “clumps” gather more and more mass their gravitational pull increases, forcing more atoms together. This process is known as accretion, and the result is a protostar.

What elements are in a protostar?

Early protostars would have been formed from the gasses that were created soon after the big bang. They would be 75% Hydrogen, 25% Helium with traces of Lithium.

What are the elements formed in protostar?

hydrogen
The gas is mostly made up of atoms of hydrogen, though small amounts of heavier elements can be found floating through space, as well. In some places, the interstellar medium is collected into a big cloud of dust and gas called a nebula.

What is the first stage of a protostar?

Stage 1- Stars are born in a region of high density Nebula, and condenses into a huge globule of gas and dust and contracts under its own gravity. This image shows the Orion Nebula or M42 . Stage 2 – A region of condensing matter will begin to heat up and start to glow forming Protostars.

How long does the nebula stage last?

And that shining illuminates the final exhalation of gases like a cosmic, diaphanous veil. Astronomers have captured one such planetary nebula in this stunning image. This brightly-lit, stellar exhalation will last only 10,000 years, a brief moment in astronomical terms.

What are stellar processes?

Stellar nucleosynthesis is the process by which elements are created within stars by combining the protons and neutrons together from the nuclei of lighter elements. All of the atoms in the universe began as hydrogen. Fusion inside stars transforms hydrogen into helium, heat, and radiation.

What are protostars made up of?

The gas is mostly made up of atoms of hydrogen, though small amounts of heavier elements can be found floating through space, as well. In some places, the interstellar medium is collected into a big cloud of dust and gas called a nebula.

Why do protostars heat up?

Stage 2: Protostar. As a gas clump collapses it heats up because the gas particles run into each other. The energy the gas particles had from falling under the force of gravity gets converted to heat energy. The gas clump becomes warm enough to produce a lot of infrared and microwave radiation.