-- JoDunkley, PhilMarshall - 08 Oct 2011

The Life Cycle of Stars

For a group of 10-30 people: uses balloons as models of 4 different types of stars, that undergo different evolution. 4 narrators turn over cards in unison, and read out the instructions for the rest of the group, who are holding a balloon each. Most are red balloons, some are yellow, a few are white and one is blue - to match the initial mass function. As time goes on, the different types of stars get blown up - and some are popped in supernovae. Inside each balloon is a core to be discovered - a ball bearing black hole, a tiny magnet neutron star, or a small polystyrene white dwarf.

This activity was designed at Adler Planetarium - instructions can be downloaded here:

Life-Cycle-of-Stars.pdf

We transcribed the 4 stellar histories onto some nice cards. Download and print (in colour) this PDF file, and laminate if you can!

Life-Cycle-of-Stars_cards.pdf