A Poem/Rap - Words and illustrations by

one of my 15 year old pupils - Hannah Wood - 1998

Once upon a time I was a cool mass of gas,

I contracted and contracted 'til my temperature was vast,

It reached a value of a million degrees C

(Then a nuclear reaction took place in me!)

Hydrogen atoms combined with those more heavy,

Formed inert gas helium, produced large amounts of energy,

The energy released is of the nuclear sort,

The further contraction of me began to halt!

When the reaction ended the contraction began anew,

Once again my temperature grew and grew,

Hydrogen and lithium began to react,

And over time I ceased to contract and contract.

When these light materials were all consumed,

The contraction of my body then resumed,

My final development was when helium formed from hydrogen,

At very high temperatures through the action of carbon and nitrogen.

Made me swell and swell 'til I reached a RED GIANT state,

When all my hydrogen had become helium was when my size was most great,

I wanted more than anything to continue to shine,

To do this my temperature needed to rise really high.

High enough to cause helium nuclei to fuse,

It became smaller and denser, nuclear energy it used,

When I exhausted all my possible nuclear energy source,

I contracted further and further to become a white dwarf.

This was my final stage; my life was almost over,

I gave a stellar explosion known as a supernova,

I shed my outer envelope, went out with a bang,

My interstellar elements returned to where they began.

Only now they were heavier, as them I had synthesized,

Future generations of stars would now have a greater supply,

her name was Little Tallulah,

She was very special;

she was a planetary nebula.

This means she shed her layers in a non-explosive fashion,

She became an old star surrounded by spheres of radiating gases,

A clever scientist noticed she ejected material strangely,

In all sorts of blobs and jets and pinwheel patterns mainly.

This is because the gravity of near objects pulls and makes,

The dying star's atmosphere form these wonderful shapes,

Because I am a massive star, much bigger than your sun,

Quickly through my cycle of evolution I had to run.

From my birth to my death, I lived only a few million years,

I am destined to become a black hole of this I greatly fear,

During this process I'll contract and contract,

and maybe lose my shape,

The scariest thing about being a black hole is that from me light radiation cannot escape.

Life goes on for your old sun, he may last billions more years,

But eventually he'll become a black dwarf, it'll all end in tears,

And here ends my tale of woe, I'll have to say goodbye,

So think of me shining my last rays for you as you look into the sky.