Exam 22: Stars From Adolescence to Old Age

A science fiction writer needs an environment for her latest story where stars are as crowded together as possible. Which of the following would be a good place to locate her story?

When the outer layers of a star like the Sun expand, and it becomes a giant, which way does it move on the H-R diagram?

If stars with masses like our Sun's cannot make elements heavier than oxygen, where are heavier elements like silicon produced in the universe?

If you wanted to discover the youngest stars you could find in some grouping of stars in the Galaxy, which type of star group would be the best to search?

Many names used by astronomers are misleading or outdated. A good example is the term planetary nebula, which astronomers use to refer to:

Why do all stars spend most of their lives on the main sequence?

The event in the life of a star that begins its expansion into a giant is

Which of the following statements about open clusters of stars is FALSE?

When stars become giants, which of the following does NOT usually happen?

If most stars are low-mass stars, and low-mass stars typically eject a planetary nebula, why then do astronomers see relatively few planetary nebulae in the sky?

How are globular clusters distributed in our Milky Way Galaxy?

Biologists tell us that life on Earth took billions of years to evolve into astronomy students and other examples of intelligent life. If we want to search for planets with intelligent life-forms that evolved over the same period of time that we did, what sorts of stars should we not bother searching around?

If you trace back the history of a carbon atom in your little finger through all of cosmic history, where did this atom most likely originate?

When a star first begins the long path toward becoming a red giant, a layer of hydrogen around the core begins to undergo fusion. If this layer was too cold to do fusion throughout the main sequence stage, why is it suddenly warm enough?

After it experiences a "helium flash" a star like the Sun will have a brief period of stability, fusing helium into carbon (and sometimes oxygen). During this brief stable stage, the star