My Life: by Aldebaran Star

by Noah Levine, contributing reporter

Hey everyone, my name is Aldebaran Star but most people just call me Alde. I was born just like any other star, within the vast clouds of dust scattered throughout most galaxies. When these clouds begin to collapse due to turbulence, the material in the center heats up. This heated material was me in my very first stage of life, I was a protostar. As I grew up after a few hundred million years, I was what I had always dreamed about being. A main sequence star! I didn’t know when I was born if I would become one. I had heard of famous stars like Betelgeuse and VY Canis Majoris which were once in the main sequence but I had no idea I would be in it. When I was in the main sequence I spent lots of time there, (about 9 billion years). I made lasting friendships with other stars, Practiced my nuclear fusion reactions and measured my luminosity and brightness with other stars. When I was in the main sequence, My best friend Polaris and I would spend time counting the planets and visit different galaxies. The last time we checked I had a temperature of 3,910 degrees Kelvin a luminosity of just around 500 and I was orange in color. Polaris was 5,700 degrees Kelvin had a luminosity of 5000 and was white in color. After I spent billions of fun-filled and exciting years of my life in the main sequence, I began to wonder “what’s next for me, do I die? Do I live in another stage?”, until I remembered what grandpa neutron star had told me many years ago. He said “Aldebaran Star, you will live many stages. Main Sequence, Red Giant, Planetary nebula, White dwarf, Black Dwarf.” Soon after I began to undergo many changes. I began to cool, have more luminosity, and I grew to around 150 times my original size. I was a Red Giant! To this day I am still a red giant, patrolling the universe with Polaris. Though I have lived many years, My life is far from over. Recently I reached out to my wise friend Pollux who is also a red giant. I asked him what would happen to me next and he said in many millions of years my outer layers would be ejected in a shell of gas that will last a few tens of thousands of years before spreading into space. That would be a planetary nebula. Then my small white core which would be the only thing remaining would illuminate space and I would be a white dwarf, until finally I run out of gas and am a black dwarf. A dead star.