Stellar Astronomy at RIT HST$Image$ 1 Astronomers at RIT want to know about how stars and planets are born and how they die. 2 Not Shown to Scale Chandra Credit:$NASA/CXC/SAO$ To explore these ideas we use telescopes on Earth and in space. These telescopes Telescopes detect both high and low energy light. Light of different energies will tell us about different properties of these objects. Credit:$NRAO$ IRAM 30M Gemini 8M 3 How are stars Stars are born out of clouds of gas and dust that exist throughout galaxies. made Gravity causes small pieces of the cloud to collapse and form young stars with disks of gas and dust around them. 1 It starts with a cloud of dust & Gas.. 2 Clumping 5 Planetary Systems Form 3 Baby Star forms 4 Disk forms 4 around Yo u n g S t a r Image$Credit:$NRAO$ Planets Caught in the Of Forming! Act. Artist’s interpretation of planet formation Image$Credit:$Gemini$Observatory/AURA$ Lyne?e$Cook$ Fake Image Yo u n g S t a r BABY PLANET! Real Image ALMA Image where planets are believed to be forming in the Gaps HL Tau Gravity within the disk causes gas and dust to clump together to form planets. Astronomers believe that this is how our Solar System formed. Studying these types of systems helps us to understand the origins of our Solar System and life itself. 5 How do Stars live for millions to billions of years. The size of the star determines its fate: when a star reaches the end stars die of its life it dies and explodes as a planetary nebula or supernova. $ Red Giant Small Star Cloud of Gas & Dust Image$Credits:$ Stars:$SDO$$ Large Nebulae:$Hubblesite$ Neutron$Star:$NASA$ Star Black$Hole:$NASA/JPL$ Red SuperGiant 6 Stars live for millions to billions of years. The size of the star determines its fate: when a star reaches the end of its life it dies and explodes as a planetary nebula or supernova. $ White Planetary Dwarf Nebula Neutron Star Supernova Black Hole 7 Stars like the sun die slowly shedding their outer layers, to Become planetary nebulae. Stars much larger than our sun die fast as supernova explosions! Planetary Nebula: The Helix Nebula Supernova Remnant: The Crab Nebula Planetary Nebula: The Cat’s Eye Nebula Supernova Remnant: SNR 0509-67.5 8 Images taken by Hubble Space Telescope .