Have you ever wondered what happens to the different stars in the night sky as they get older? This activity lets you explore the life-cycle of stars.
Use the Star In A Box app to explore the relationship between a star's mass and its life-cycle. Learn to describe the relationship between a star's mass and its life span, name the stages of a star's life-cycle, in order, for several masses of star and describe the relationship between a star's mass, its age, and its position on the Hertzsprung-Russell diagram.
Have you ever wondered what happens to the different stars in the night sky as they get older? This activity lets you explore the life-cycle of stars.
Interactive life-cycle
Star in a Box is an interactive webapp which animates stars with different starting masses as they change during their lives. Some stars live fast-paced, dramatic lives, others change very little for billions of years. The webapp visualises the changes in mass, size, brightness and temperature for all these different stages.
Classroom resources
Are you a teacher? Do you want to use Star in a Box in your classroom lessons? These resources are designed to help you to explore the life-cycle of stars with your class.
Further reading
If you would like to know more about how stars evolve, why not take a look at our SpaceBook pages about the life-cycle of stars.
Acknowledgments
UK curriculum activities written by Megan Davies, in association with Cardiff University. Web app developed by Jon Yardley, Stuart Lowe and Edward Gomez.
Peer Reviewed versions
These activities have been peer-reviewed by independent experts in astronomy and education are available on astroEDU:
