What are Stars?

Stars are the heavenly bodies like the Sun that are extremely hot and have light of their
own.Stars are made up of Hydrogen gas, some helium and dust. In all stars (including the sun),
hydrogen atoms are continuously being converted into helium atoms and a large amount of
nuclear energy in the form of heat and light are released during this process. All stars are very
big in size. the stars twinkle at night ,i.e. the intensity of their light appears to increase and
decrease continuously.

Birth, Evolution & Death of a Star

Like human beings stars also take birth and after completing their growth stages they finally die.
So, lets have a look at the different stages of stars birth , evolution and Death of a star.

Intro: The raw material for the formation of a star is mainly hydrogen gas and some Helium gas.
The life cycle of a star begins with gathering of Hydrogen and helium gas present on galaxies to
form dense clouds of these gases.
1) First Stage- Formation of a Protostar
Protostar is a highly condensed cloud of gases, mainly Hydrogen and some Helium, formed by the
gravitational contraction of gases present in the galaxy. A protostar looks like a huge, dark, ball of
gas.This protostar does not emit light. it is only a stage in the formation of a complete star.
2) Second Stage- Formation of Star from Protostar
In this stage we will get to know how a complete star is formed.

The protostar formed above is highly dense gaseous mass which continues to contract further due to
high gravitational force. Due to contraction, the hydrogen atoms presents in the gas cloud collide with
one another more frequently thus raises the temperature of protostar more and more for about millions of
years( temperature increases from -173 degree Celsius in the beginning to about 10*7 times degree
Celsius).So as a result, nuclear fusion reaction of hydrogen start taking place, resulting in formation of
the core of Star.
..FUSION.>
4 H1 4
He + Tremendous Energy
Four hydrogen One Helium

Nuclei Nucleus

Here, 4 Hydrogen Nuclei fuse to produce a bigger Helium Nucleus. Thus a star formed containing a
core(in center) and an outer shell or envelope covering it.

3) Final stage
Now in this stage a star first reaches its maturity(adulthood)- Red giant phase and after that its ageing
depends upon its initial mass ,either equals to mass of sun or more than that.