Introduction

In this course, you will explore the exotic end-points in the lives of most stars – namely white dwarfs and neutron stars. To do this we consider the properties of so-called degenerate matter and how these properties govern the later stages of stellar evolution. To set the scene, we begin by outlining the life cycle of stars in general, before moving onto consider their end-points. We next look at planetary nebulae and white dwarfs, which are the end points of low- and medium-mass stars, and then see how high-mass stars end their lives as supernovae, and may produce neutron star remnants.

This course shall refer to masses, radii and luminosities of stars in terms of the mass, radius and luminosity of the Sun (represented by M_☉ = 1.99 × 10³⁰ kg, R_☉ = 6.96 × 10⁵ km and L_☉ = 3.83 × 10²⁶ W respectively) and will sometimes refer to energies in the alternative units of electronvolts (where 1 eV = 1.60 × 10^-19 J, with 1 keV = 10³ eV and 1 MeV = 10⁶ eV for convenience).

This OpenLearn course is an adapted extract from the Open University course S384 Astrophysics of stars and exoplanets.