Description
Transcript: Stars are stable. For most of their lives, fusion provides the energy source. Even though the Sun and other stars are fusing hydrogen into helium, it does not mean that they are bombs. The Sun will be stable for billions of years. Stars also do not cool off. Energy flows continuously from the core where fusion occurs to the outer cooler regions. At every point within a stable star there’s an energy balance between two forces: the inward force of gravity and the outward pressure caused by energy release from nuclear reactions. This balance is called hydrostatic equilibrium.
Transcript: Since light has a finite speed, three hundred thousand kilometers per second, there’s an inevitable consequence called light travel time. In terrestrial environments light essentially travels instantly or appears to travel fast. The finite speed of light, three hundred thousand...
Published 07/24/11
Transcript: Some stars in the sky, somewhat hotter than the Sun with temperatures of 5 thousand to 10 thousand Kelvin, have very low luminosities in the range of one-hundredth to one-thousandth the Sun’s luminosity. Application of the Stephan-Boltzmann Law shows that they must be physically...
Published 07/24/11
Transcript: Certain rare stars in the sky with either red or blue colors are extremely luminous, up to a million times the luminosity of the Sun. Application of the Stephan-Boltzmann Law shows that their sizes must be in the range of ten to a thousand times the size of the Sun. These...
Published 07/24/11