The Lifecycle of a Star

‘There are more stars than all of the grains of sand on earth.’(Star Facts, 2005:1)

Looking up at the sky on a vibrant night, the vision is naturally lit one with millions of vivacious, glistening stars. The tenacity of this essay is to explore the lifecycle of a star, thence, signify its manifestation in the universe. A fundamental part of our universe is stars. Hence, these miniature luminous forms are essentially very immense in magnitude and it is merely due to their substantial distance from Earth that they appear so trivial. Scientifically, a star is a ball of hydrogen and helium with sufficient mass that it can endure nuclear mixture at its core. A huge, shining ball of plasma, whose lustre is an outcome of thermonuclear fusion are all properties of a star. In addition, they are held together by gravity. By far the star nearest to earth is probably known by all humans as the Sun. A bright star on Orion’s top-left section named as Betelgeuse is so massive that if it was placed where the sun is, it would swallow up Earth, Mars and Jupiter!2 Furthermore, a teaspoon full of Neutron star would weigh about “112 million tonnes” . Particular stars are known to be 600,000 times brighter than the sun ; thus a stars’ lifespan varies between 1 billion to 10 billion years 2.This essay will discuss a star’s journey from as little as a protostar (foetus) till the final stage as a black hole or a white dwarf (old age- death).

Every star starts off as a protostar and grows its way into the main sequence (adulthood). A protostar is the birth of a star; they are large clouds of hydrogen, helium and dust. In addition, they are often found in groups of combined clusters at the same time. A star initiates truly by its own gravitational redu...

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BOOKS:

Conway, A, Coleman, R. 2003, A beginner’s guide to the Universe, Press Syndicate, The University of Cambridge, United Kingdom.

Penston, M, Morison I. 2004, Astronomy, New Holland Publishers, London, England.