Index

Interstellar Clouds
Classes of Objects
Gas Giant Planets
Brown Dwarfs
Red Dwarfs
Sun-sized Stars
Large Stars
The Largest Stars
Impossible Stars
Star Clusters
Planetary Systems
Rocky Planets
An Endless Cycle

1. Name the different sorts of stars and detail their characteristics.
2. What is the smallest size a star can be and what determines that size? What is the largest size a star can be and what prevents them from growing larger?
3. For how long do the smallest stars live? Why do they have such long lives? For how long do the largest stars live? Why do they have such short lives?
4. What happens to the different types of stars when they finish burning their hydrogen?
5. What happens to the clouds of dust and gas that stars put back into the interstellar medium via stellar winds, planetary nebula generation and supernova explosion?
6. Where did the cloud from which the solar system formed come from? How do we know that the solar system formed 4.7 billion years ago? Where did Earth and all the elements that constitute it come from?