Stellar Evolution (?)

[ArthurWilborn]

Can stars be said to evolve? They do reproduce in a fashion, since the nova/supernova of a star can lead to other stars being formed. Their "descendants" do show variation since they're not all exactly the same. Probably a silly question, but I'm just curious.

 

[he_who_is_nobody]

Can stars be said to evolve? They do reproduce in a fashion, since the nova/supernova of a star can lead to other stars being formed. Their "descendants" do show variation since they're not all exactly the same. Probably a silly question, but I'm just curious.

Yes, by the laypersons use of the word. Evolution simply means change over time. Therefore, a star's formation, growth, and destruction is evolution. Just like your birth, growth, and death can be said to be evolution.

However, if you are talking about in a scientific sense, than no it cannot be said that stars evolve. In biology, evolution is defined as the change in allelic frequencies in a population over time. Seeing as how stars do not have alleles, they cannot be said to evolve.

 

[CommonEnlightenment]

I could see that if you defined Stellar evolution as a different chemical composition than the parent or previous state, then I would say yes, stars evolve. Hydrogen being converted into helium would be one well know example. Since the chemical composition of a star goes through change, I could see a person using that definition to properly describe STELLAR evolution.

This should be a good exercise as to why one should be clear in the way they use terms. One would be Biological evolution and the other would be Stellar evolution. Could some analogies be drawn between the two? I would say yes. But you must be careful to spell out the use of analogy, used to describe or conceptualize a process(es), and not what actually happens in reality. If the analogy did not 'break down' at some point, we would have no need to divide science into different categories with names like "Biology" and "Physics". Then add the multiple divisions that exist within the category of "Physics".

Cheers.

*EDIT: Eliminated a few words after thinking about the wording. Constant being one of those words, in the third sentence.

 

[Prolescum]

There are few instances where I would object to the term being used in that context. As he_who_is_nobody says, it's a relatively harmless shorthand for change over time.