Most Massive, Hottest, Strongest, Luminous, Dangerous, Most Destructive,
and Powerful among current stars, They Shape our galaxy and Nebulae, Perform
a major role in the Birth of stars and Creators of Splendid yet Violent
Cosmic Explosions. We are talking about The O Type Stars Which are
interesting Stars themselves, Welcome to This post and I hope you are doing
well, Today we'll learn about some secrets of O Class Stars. without wasting
any time let's Begin our Journey, in which we'll take you to Such stars and
Discuss their properties, Also we'll Theoretically See what would happen If
our Sun was an O-type star.
Thanks for reaching here.
Introduction :
Before we Start Here's a quick view of O star's properties.
Mass = 16 - 90 MS (Solar masses)
Temperature = +30,000 K
Luminosity = 30,000 - 1,000,000 LS (Solar luminosities)
Color = Blue and White
These Stars are more than 16 times more
massive than that of our sun, meaning more Luminosity, Temperature,
and many other things. Their Enormous Mass makes their Fusion more aggressive
and Efficient in the core. their tremendous power to fuse comes from
a Fusion process called the CNO Cycle,
which is more efficient at higher temperatures. They quickly Burn their fuel and their High mass brings several
great Characteristics which are not found in other groups. As you
know High mass also brings high temperature so their Surface heat
Reaches Beyond the 7th sky and glows Blue and White colors, thus
they become the hottest among current Stars as well as they glow
enough to be visible from Many Thousands of Light years away. They
are also Great emitters of Ultraviolet (UV) Radiation. Such Stars don't Have strong Gravity which is only 10 Times More
than our earth, That's Why they keep losing Outer shells of gases
and create large Gaseous nebula-like structures in space.
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An O type Star is surrounded by its own dense cloud
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These Stars are Very hard to find, simply because There are only 20,000 Stars
in this category according to a study in our Milky Way, Secondly they
form rarely. However, They are more abundant in galactic arms and
specific types of Interstellar clouds. Like Every Star, they also form
from dense regions of molecular clouds. When they are in the Protostar
phase, they blow a huge amount of gases which reshape its mother nebula
and often divide such nebulae into many pieces, when their Strong Proto
stellar Radiation Ionizes
the atoms and molecules and Winds Pushes further the gas clouds and Cuts
into Many pieces, which causes further Stellar formation and create new
Stars in Groups we call it "Star Clusters", That's why the majority of O
Type Stars are a member of Binary or Even multiple star systems or
Clusters. It is also seen that O Type in Large Magellanic Cloud
have lower metallicities and are hotter than in Milky Way O Stars.
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A Blue Star Creating Large Cloud
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It also noticed that O1 V - O2 V stars are Extremely rare sometimes
it feels they don't exist but Minor reports of these stars have been
recorded, Therefore O3 V Stars are slightly abundant So their classification
Starts from O3.
Sometimes, Their Powerful Proto stellar Radiation Can Interrupt the
Process of Star Formations Because They have Ionizing Radiations like UV
Rays, which means they can Remove or Add Electron, Protons,
and other Subatomic particles from nuclei, it results Start or
Stop The Star formation process. Thus they play an important role
in the evolution of Stars.
Evolution :
These Stars have a Shorter Life spans than others, so they will go through
the following stage in a short time, As always, the details of every terms
and Stages are not possible due to the objective and size of this
guide.
Main Sequence Phase (V) :
When a Star is mostly productive meaning Fusing Hydrogen and
Emitting Energy in Space. Along Fusion, Enormous energy emanates which
tries to Explode the Star but Same time Gravity crushes the Star, these
two opposing forces Balance the Star. It neither Explodes nor Collapses
due to gravity. this is denoted by V in Yerkes or MK System of
Star's Classification. This period is called Main Sequence However
Some stars can show variability.
O-type Stars remain in this phase for 10 Million Years, This is
relatively short than other groups, During this period they Burn Hydrogen
and make helium, creating Various Elements. All this happens quickly that
No Star Can Sustain on O Class for more than about 6 Million years.
in their Last times, they lose mass, fuel, and temperature, resulting in a
Hot B type Star which are the smaller version of the O type.
In Main Sequence phase, they have strong stellar winds which consist of
Charged particles of Plasma, Protons and other subatomic particles at
1000 - 2000 Km/h speed, Which is way more powerful than the Sun's
Wind aka Solar wind. These high-speed Stream causes Mass loss in the
star and When these high speed wind particles interact with outer space
they gradually lose their speed and form large nebula-like structures.
sometimes Star's outer layer virtually gets lost and the inner portion
appears. This kind of star is called Wolf-Rayet Star which has
more temperature than Regular O Stars.
Sub Giant (IV) :
When there is a few amounts of hydrogen left and Star's Fuel is about
to Exhaust meaning a Large amount of Helium is Accumulating in the
star's inner core, it increases the temperature and Helium Fusion Begins
but this takes in only a tiny part of the inner portion of the star. it
takes place where the core and convective zone meets around the border
of these two zones. All these processes help to star even in the low
amount of hydrogen-like situations and the star becomes Brighter, starts
to expand and cools. So The Period of a star between the Main sequence
and Giant phases, is called Sub giant phase. However, O-type stars
rarely enter in this phase if they do, it will be like a quick
transition between two phases. it is not possible to give all the
details due to the size of this post so There will be another post where
we will discuss these phases.
O type Stars have this phase very short about a few thousand years
because they Burn everything so quickly and create a lot of elements and
their Metallicity Meaning abundance of Metals (Heavier elements than
Hydrogen and Helium) will decide their fate.
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An Old O type Star Creating Nebula by losing its outer plasma
at enormous rate and Shining in violet and blue hue.
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Giant (III) :
The O-type Stars are highly luminous from birth, The entire O
type Stars are hottest in MK system but Rarely it can lose temperature
and become B or A type stars.
Bright and Supergiant phase (II) and (I) :
These Stars are Supergiant since birth and in the early period
of their life or going through a blue loop. When they will reach to
their Death, They will have produced all the elements till Iron in
their core, when they become supernova they will eject some of these
elements but This theory doesn't apply to all O Type Stars. Let's see
its slight Variations:
If an O-type Star's mass is about 24 - 60 Ms, it will become a
Yellow supergiant Before Supernova or become Blue Again.
If it has more than 60 Ms it will enter the Blue supergiant
stage for a Short time then blow its outer layers and inner parts
visible. This is called Wolf Rayet Star.
Very Low mass Stars will choose Different paths, they will Become Red
giant and Red Supergiant they will show Massive Material Losses and
form a Planetary nebula and Core becomes White Dwarf.
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The Stellar Remnant Nebula with Neutron Star in Central
Region
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The Above Process happens in 10 Million Years and If the Star
is more massive then it'll happen Sooner.
The Sun as an O Star :
Let's talk about what if our Sun was an O star, first of all,
it would become a stellar remnant like a Black hole or Neutron
star If Earth is 4.54 Billion Years old because O-type
stars have very short lifespans. Nevertheless, If we think the
earth is also formed in the star's main sequence stage. Star
will cease further planetary and stellar formations owing to its
High energy winds and Strong Ionizing Radiation which would
divide the nebulous cloud into several pieces.
But we will look at it as if the Sun Becomes an O Type star in
the next minute Then what would happen?
But we will look it as if Sun Becomes an O Type star in next minute
Then what would happen.
Effect on Solar system :
Now the Sun has turned into an O Star from G Type, it will eject
more radiation than ever as well as 100,000 to 1,000,000 times more
luminous it will Boil every planet and moon, Atmosphere of planets
will quickly disappear because enormous radiation will ionize them
and finally blow it out into space. Magnetic fields of Planets will
be destroyed soon, its cataclysmic magnetic storms will bring
massive destruction at both Mega and micro levels. Every member of
the solar system will vaporize through Stellar winds and radiation,
our star will appear from Thousands of light years away.
Effect on Earth :
Life will face real hell before such an apocalypse, Bacteria
and other micro-animals will disappear and plants will begin to
starve they won't be able to photosynthesis in such an
environment because their chlorophyll will be dismantled by the
UV rays and eventually they will die. Marine fauna and flora
will see similar effects and humans will also be extinct from
the earth soon.
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