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Astronomy Article No.1 – Stars
Stars are the seemingly tiny points of light in the night sky. We look at them and are awestruck by their presence. Yet, they are just like us, except without all of the chavs that exist. Basically, Stars are what we would have become if it weren’t for the fact that we have consciousness. Stars form constellations and little clusters, like we have families. They then go on to form galaxies, which are like our towns and cities. And finally, galaxies go on to make galaxy groups and clusters, which are like our countries.
But there’s one big difference. If you think 7 billion humans is a large number, think again. There are a predicted 70 Billion Trillion stars out there. If they all had consciousness, I think they’d be the dominant species.
Anyway, there are many types of star out there, but here’s a quick guide to how a star is born and how it dies:
Stars begin in star forming regions, usually in a molecular cloud. These are clouds of hydrogen, helium, and other ionized gases. These eventually come together to make a dwarf star. As the proportion of helium in its core increases, its luminosity and temperature increases. These stars eventually exhaust their hydrogen supply, and rapidly expand to create a red giant. Depending on the size of the star, hydrogen may still be fused around the core, or the star may switch immediately to fusing helium. Once this is consumed, the star fuses carbon and oxygen around the core.
Then, a variety of things can happen during the star’s “death”, dependent upon the size of the original star:
Your average sized star will shed its outer layers to form a planetary nebula. If what remains after the shedding of the outer layers is less than 1.4 Solar Masses, it shrinks to about the size of the Earth, where no more compression can take place.This is known as a white dwarf. These fade into black dwarves over a long period of time.
Larger stars create a supernova, which is caused by the collapse of its core. Usually, what is left after a supernova is a neutron star. These are extremely dense, with an average mass of 500,000 times that of the Earth, but in a sphere the size of Brooklyn, USA. Because of this, they spin around extremely quickly, at around 600 revolutions per second. If a star is big enough however, it will form a black hole.
Images of the Article

WR124 – Wolf Rayet Star
This is a star on the edge of its death, expelling much of its mass at 100,000 mph. They are extremely hot and luminous, and is being kept alive by a powerful stellar wind
Bok Globules
Bok Globules are a form of extremely cold molecular clouds that sometimes form stars. Unfortunately, these ones won’t ever create a star – they are being burned out by the stars in the background. They were originally observed by astronomer Bart Bok, and are a subject of intense research, as their structure and density is still a mystery.
I hope you have enjoyed today’s article on Stars!
Toby
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Edit: My God I made a few mistakes during this article. I've edited it, but I do apologise for the discrepancies ;p