Labs / Astronomy
Stellar Life Cycle
Choose how much gas a star is born with and press play. It swells into a giant, traces a path across the Hertzsprung–Russell diagram on the right, and ends its life as one of three remnants — the outcome is decided almost entirely by that one starting number, its mass. Drag the timeline to scrub through billions of years.
Age 0 kyrStage ProtostarR 1 R☉T 5772 KFate White dwarf
What to try
- A tiny red dwarf and a massive blue star are both born today. Which one is still shining long after the other has died?
- Where is the boundary mass? Nudge the slider up until the fate flips from white dwarf to neutron star — then to black hole.
- Watch the age readout during the main sequence versus the giant phase. Why does a star spend almost its whole life in one spot?
- The Sun's track loops far to the right of the HR diagram before collapsing. What is happening to its size and temperature there?
- Only the heaviest stars flash as a supernova. What does a low-mass star do instead to shed its outer layers?