Our Cosmic Connections Webquest - Task Description

While you are absent from school for two weeks with the flu, you are missing the chapter on stellar evolution in Earth Science class. Before you will be able to return to school, the class will have finished their oral presentations on the evolution of mid-sized and massive stars, and turned in an organized portfolio of supporting materials for their presentations. Since you have a computer at home, your teacher has developed a webquest version on stellar evolution that you can substitute for your oral presentation, so that you will not fall behind the rest of the class.

You will access a website that has 24 numbered and un-sequenced images of various stages of stellar evolution. There are enough stages represented to arrange the images in a sequence from formation to final end product(s) for mid-sized and massive stars - including a Type Ia supernova event. Some of the images may be used for more than one type of sequence. Except for the Image #1 of the Earth, there is a link below each of the images. Since you have missed all the classroom lectures and discussion about stellar evolution, you may have a difficult time understand what evolutionary stage each of the images represents. To help you determine what the images are, click on the link below each image. The links will take you to objects that are in similar stages of evolution. Write a brief description of what stage each object represents for each of the numbered images.

You will need a PDF print-out of the website on which to write in the descriptions of each image

Using the written description that you have for each of the 24 images, write the number of the appropriate images onto a sheet of plain white paper in a sequence of formation to final end product(s) for each of the following:

1. A mid-sized star
2. A massive star
3. A Type Ia supernova

Here is a website that will help refresh your memory on stellar evolution:

Chandra: Stellar Evolution - Cycles of Formation and Destruction