Stellar evolution

Stellar Structure and Evolution

Stellar Evolution Presenting

Stars “evolve” with time in a predicable manner. Our theory of stellar evolution is one of the foundations of astrophysics, is well tested and verified, and has enabled great advances in many fields of astrophysics. As such, stellar evolution is a cornerstone of any astronomy course, from the 100 level up through graduate levels. One of the leading software to model a star’s evolution in detail...

Horizontal Branch Stellar Evolution

I review aspects of the evolution of horizontal branch (HB) stars. The defining characteristic of this, the core He-burning phase of evolution for M < Mflash ∼ 2.2M⊙, is a spread in observed colour amongst HB stars within the (almost) chemically homogeneous, isochronous populations found in Galactic globular clusters. The inference is that the stars within a given cluster must have undergone va...

FUors and Early Stellar Evolution

Ambartsumian was among the first researchers who recognized the importance and uniqueness of FUors, the term he coined for the rare outburst sources of the FU Orionis type. A wealth of observational data and concomitant theoretical work has advanced our understanding of FUors in the intervening almost 40 years. These results are summarized in this brief review, with special emphasis on observat...

Late Stages of Stellar Evolution

The Square Kilometer Array will have the sensitivity, spatial resolution, and frequency resolution to provide new scientific knowledge of evolved stars. Four basic areas of scientific exploration are enhanced by the construction of the SKA: 1) detection and imaging of photospheric radio continuum emission and position correlation with maser distributions, 2) imaging of thermal dust emission aro...