Universiti Malaya – Wales

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By Zulfazli Rosli

I would like to take this wonderful opportunity to share what my focus has been these past two years. So yeah, I do star-formation stuff, which means what it implies, studying how stars are born. To be more specific, I focus on massive stars that are at least 5 – 8 times the size of our Sun which have their differences, and FYI, the Sun is relatively a little star, or we call it a low-mass star. Let’s look at how these magnificent giants of creation are born.

Twinkle twinkle little star, How I wonder what you are…

The absolute opposite! Stars are behemoth spheres of extremely hot gas predominantly made up of hydrogen and helium (the reason they get SO HOT). Hydrogen and helium are burned through nuclear fusion, which makes stars, yes even the “little ones” a fireball of nuclear explosions.

(1) A baby star or Protostar are born in stellar nurseries, which are Giant clouds of dust called nebulae. (2) The force of gravity pulls together all this dust and (3) increases at extreme temperatures and pressure forming a protostar. (4) And the process keeps on going until the core gets hot enough to initiate nuclear fusion and BOOM, (5) a star is born!

 

Depending on its mass, A stars life will either be short or long and there are also special conditions that lead to planetary formation. Yes, planets are formed as a spin-off from star-formation. But that is a story that I would share for another day. Cheers!

Source / References

https://science.nasa.gov/astrophysics/focus-areas/how-do-stars-form-and-evolve

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