Red Giants, White Dwarfs, the Sun, & Black Holes

A Red Giant is defined as a "large, old, luminous star; that has a relatively low surface temperature and a diameter large relative to the sun" by the American Heritage Science dictionary. A red giant's creation originates when the hydrogen in a star is converted into helium. This conversion produces light and other radiation. The heavier helium created "sinks" toward the center of the star and a "shell" of hydrogen is formed around the helium cluster. At this point, the star does not generate a sufficient amount of energy and pressure; which is necessary to support the outer layers of the star, because of the hydrogen depletion. The star then collapses and the star's temperature and pressure levels rise until the helium core can "fuse" into carbon. This causes the helium to burn and radiate energy. At this point, the star transforms into a Red Giant. Red Giants are mostly formed from a main sequence star. Therefore, our sun will become a red giant during its lifetime. Red Giants characteristically have a surface temperature of 2,500 to 3,500 degrees Celsius. Red Giants also have a diameter between 10 and 100 times larger than the Sun's diameter. The masses of Red Giants vary greatly. Red Giants that are formed from the most massive of stars are considered to be Red Supergiants. Red Giants are also believed to "pulsate" and are considered variable.

A White Dwarf star is what stars become after they have "exhausted" their supply of nuclear fuel. White Dwarf stars are formed from planetary nebulae, which are formed from Red Giants. After a star has undergone the planetary nebula stage, only the hot core of the star remains present, which leaves the star as a "young" White Dwarf. This "young" White Dwarf will continue its cooling process over a period of a couple billion years. White Dwarfs are detected as low-energy x-ray sources. White Dwarfs are normally half as massive as the Sun, but a small amount larger than the Earth. White Dwarfs are one of the densest "forms of matter". White Dwarfs are known to survive because of quantum mechanical principles and not internal fusion. Also, as a White Dwarf's mass increases, its size decreases. Therefore, its mass and size are inversely proportional.

Our Sun is known as a main sequence star. Therefore, the Sun will become a Red Giant. Then the Sun will transform into a planetary nebula and finally meet its fate when it becomes a White Dwarf. The Sun's diameter is 1,390,000 kilometers. The Sun is known to contain approximately 99.8% of the Solar System's total mass. The core of the Sun is approximately 15,600,000 degrees Kelvin and its surface is 5,800 degress Kelvin. Since the Sun is not a "solid body" it exhibits "differential rotation", which causes the Sun to rotate slower near its poles. The surface of the Sun is called the photosphere, which lies below the chromosphere. Above the chromosphere, there is a region known as the corona, which is only visible during a total solar eclipse. The Sun has "cool regions" that look darker compared to its surrounding areas. These "cool regions" are called sunspots and are a result of "interactions", which are not yet understood, with the Sun's magnetic field. If the Sun was not a main sequence star and was a massive star instead, then the Sun's fate would be to result in a black hole.

Black holes are "objects so dense that not even light can escape their gravity", which means that nothing can exit a black hole. In the time of Newton, scientists hypothesized that a an object like a black hole could exist, but Einstein's Theory of Relativity "more accurately describes" this phenomenon. Black holes are formed as a result of supernova explosions. It is claimed that black holes are produced as a Red Supergiant collapses. Some scientists who specialize in black hole research are Karl Schwarzchild, Jayant Narlikan, and Stephen Hawking. Since substantial evidence about black holes is limited, black holes continue to be a topic of interest and immense fascination.

~Lindsey~



Addition to this post:

Here is a link to a very good flow chart of a star's life cycle: http://www.classzone.com/books/earth_science/terc/content/visualizations/es2807/es2807page01.cfm?chapter_no=visualization.
This website is written by a textbook company so it should not be discredited by the fact that it is a ".com".

Below is an image of a star's developmental stages.


Image provided by http://www.tqnyc.org/NYC040808/stages_of_a_star.html.

Science Vs. Pseudoscience

Science is defined as "the investigation of natural phenomena through observation, theoretical explanation, and experimentation, or the knowledge produced by such investigation" by The American Heritage Science Dictionary. Science uses the scientific method as the basis in establishing scientific facts. In science, an observation is made and a hypothesis is formed pertaining to that observation. Then experiments are conducted to test the hypothesis. As a result, a hypothesis is then confirmed, modified, or discarded. Scientists consistently research the same topic for an extensive period of time before regarding a hypothesis as a scientific fact. Science studies reality and explores the physical world. There are many branches of science and even more categories within those branches. Science includes biology, chemistry, physics, and earth science. All of those branches are considered to be natural sciences.

Pseudoscience is considered to be "fake" science because "pseudo" in its language of origin means "false". Pseudoscience is also given derogatory nicknames such as junk science or bad science. Pseudoscience is a "set of ideas based on theories put forth as scientific when they are not scientific". Pseudoscience is based on hypotheses without research or evidence to support the claims. Many branches of "science" could even be considered pseudoscience depending on who you talk to and their beliefs or point of view. Some of these branches that can arguably be pseudoscience are social sciences (such as theology, methodology, and other studies of human behavior or society) and "Creation" science. Other examples of pseudoscience are psychic detectives, palm readings, horoscopes, astrology, therapeutic touch, homeopathy, chiropractics, channeling, and Unidentified Flying Objects(UFOs). Psychic detectives, palm readings, horoscopes, and astrology are all obviously pseudoscience because they deal with "spiritual" connections and not the physical world. Therapeutic touch, homeopathy, aromatherapy, craniometry, and other such "medical" pseudosciences are justly classified as such because they are not based on facts, but are based on selective use of anecdotes or intuition. Channeling is "a process whereby an individual (the "channeler") claims to have been invaded by a spirit entity which speaks through the channeler". This is commonly practiced by superstitious followers and is often done with the use of a children's toy, the Ouija Board, which clearly supports it is not real science. Chiropractics can be considered pseudoscience because the theory it revolves around is that "subluxations" or "blockages of nerves" in the back are the cause of the health problems, but neither the creator of chiropractics nor any chiropractor since has proved the existence of these "subluxations". Other pseudosciences include Quantum Physics and Graphology. Graphology is "the study of handwriting" and is used to estimate a person's personality or sometimes identify a person as guilty for a certain crime. How can graphology, which is clearly pseudoscience because there are always exceptions and does not have any substantial "empirical" evidence behind it, be used as a tool to find criminals? Pseudoscience is highly capitalized upon and is intertwined throughout our society.


I believe that many "fields" of science are actually pseudoscience because they don't have any proof to support their so-called facts. This also makes it hard to distinguish between science and pseudoscience and leads to controversy between people. Pseudoscience has been a part of society in the past, is a part of society today, and will continue to be part of society in the future. Some of the reason that pseudoscience is so prevalent in our society is because people want to have their beliefs even if they can't "see" something. One example is the belief people have in God. They can't see or know for certain of God's existence yet God is as prevalent as pseudoscience in our society considering U.S. currency states "in god we trust". Another example is the Pledge of Allegiance phrase "under god". So, does that mean that religion is another form of pseudoscience? Pseudoscience is also prevalent in society because of people craving something to give them hope whether it's hope about life on other planets, spiritual connections with those who have passed, or hope for answers to the unknown. Although, science and pseudoscience are different, they are easily confused sometimes and will always have to co-exist.

~Lindsey~