The Sun: Birth, Life, & Death

The Sun: Birth, Life, & Death

By Kristy Hilt

​The Birth, Life and Death of the Sun

​The following slides contain a series of passages from an article titled 'The birth, life and death of the sun'

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Read each passage carefully, because you will be answer questions about the article.​ You're welcome to take notes on a separate sheet of paper to record the key information that you read.

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The full article can also be found on Schoology if needed!​

​The Birth, Life and Death of the Sun

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​The Sun- of vital importance to inhabitants of Planet Earth is an average star, similar to the other stars. Its central role in the formation of the Earth, and in the evolution of every organism, is due to its close proximity. At a distance of 150,000,000 km (93,000,000 miles) away, light takes a mere 8.3 minutes to reach earth. With that light comes heat and other forms of solar radiation that nurtures life on Earth and drives many of the planet’s physical processes.

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​The Birth, Life and Death of the Sun

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Our sun will follow the same immense cycle of birth, life and death as most of its neighbors. Within the galaxy, among the stars, enormous clouds of hydrogen gas and dust swirl. Nearly 4.6 billion years ago, one such cloud became so sufficiently dense that its gravity began to pull the hydrogen and other materials into an ever tighter and more rapidly spinning cloud.​

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Multiple Select

The sun and solar system originated from an enormous swirling cloud made of what materials?

Select all that apply.

• Stars

• Hydrogen Gas

• Dust

• Waste from Astronauts

• Space Cheese

​The Birth, Life and Death of the Sun

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From an original size of several light years across, the cloud collapsed, spinning faster and faster until portions began to break off. These pieces became the planets and their moons. After about 30 million years, gravity had compressed the large central portion of the cloud to the point that pressures in its interior created extremely high temperatures. The hydrogen atoms began to fuse into heavier helium atoms causing thermonuclear reactions to begin. Our sun had been born.​

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​The Birth, Life and Death of the Sun

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The sun as we know it is composed mainly of hydrogen, the lightest of all the elements. Each year this nuclear furnace converts approximately 19.3 thousand trillion tons of hydrogen into about 19.2 thousand trillion tons of helium. The difference is about 100 trillion tons of matter, which is converted into energy in the form of heat, light, radio waves and energetic particles.

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Multiple Choice

What element makes up most of the sun?

• Hydrogen

• Helium

• Nitrogen

• Oxygen

Open Ended

When the sun converts hydrogen to helium, about 100 trillion tons of matter is lost.

Where does this matter go?

​The Birth, Life and Death of the Sun

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Even producing energy at this rate, the sun contains enough hydrogen that its output has been relatively constant for most of its 4.6 billion-year history and most likely will remain so for 5 billion years more. About one-billionth of the sun’s energy reaches Planet Earth.

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​The Birth, Life and Death of the Sun

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At its center, the sun has a temperature of about 15,000,000 ^OC ( 27,000,000 ^OF). Even at its visible surface, which is hundreds of thousands of kilometers above the nuclear furnace that is the core of the Sun, its temperature is nearly 6,000^OC (10,800^OF). Eventually, however, all the hydrogen at its core will be converted into helium. When that happens, the sun will begin to die.

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Multiple Choice

How much of the sun’s energy actually reaches earth?

• About one-thousandth

• About one-millionth

• About one-billionth

Open Ended

What process occurs at the Sun’s core that marks the beginning of the sun’s death?

​The Birth, Life and Death of the Sun

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The first sign that the Sun is dying will be a slight shrinking in size and an increase in brightness. This will be followed by a rapid expansion to millions of times greater than its present size. Mercury and possibly Venus will be swallowed up, and Earth’s surface will be heated until it is semi molten. The sun will become what astronomers call a Red Giant.

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Open Ended

When the Sun expands to its Red Giant stage it will be millions of times greater than its present size. But...

What will happen to Earth?

​The Birth, Life and Death of the Sun

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The Sun will remain in the Red Giant state for a few tens of millions of years, during which its helium core heats up until it reaches more than a100,000,000 ^OC (180,000,000 ^OF). The enormously dense core will start to “burn,” setting the scene for a series of flashes in the core that will push most of the outer layers of the sun into space. The remaining hydrogen will be converted to helium, and the helium will be converted to heavier elements primarily carbon and oxygen.

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Multiple Select

After the remaining hydrogen is converted to helium, what is the helium converted to?

Select all that are true.

• Carbon

• Oxygen

• Nirtogen

• Hydrogen

​The Birth, Life and Death of the Sun

As this conversion nears completion, the sun will once again begin to contract. It will continue to shrink in size over billions of years until it is only about as large as the Earth, becoming what is known as a white dwarf. At this stage of its development it will be so dense that a single teaspoonful of its matter would weigh more than 50 tons on earth! After several billion years, its surface layers will cool until it no longer gives off light. The sun will end its existence as a cold, dark, black dwarf.

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Multiple Choice

When the Sun transforms into a white dwarf, it will be so dense that a single teaspoonful of its matter would weigh more than ___ tons on earth!

• 10

• 100

• 50

• 5

Open Ended

The sun will end its existence as a cold, dark, black dwarf. Why does the name change from black to white? Why is it now cold?

Open Ended

NEXT: you will need to answer 13 questions from this reading activity for credit. Use any notes your recorded throughout the lesson to help you recall what you read. I encourage you to also use the final page of the Quizizz to help you answer the questions as well (you will be able to see your answer choices).

Before you get started, tell me one thing that you learned from this lesson.