Birth of a star

Let us start this blog by looking into the past, all you need to do is, make sure it’s the night, you are standing beneath the dim light of the beautiful stars and do make sure you can see the stars clearly in the night sky. Look at the stars, now this thought may not come often to your head but you may be looking towards a dead star which may have died decades ago.

Yes! You may be looking towards a dead star which may have stopped emitting light years ago. The light of the stars which are far away from us unlike our Sun and our nearest star, Alpha Centauri. which may take millions of light-years to reach us, hence the light could be reaching you at this moment while the star has been dead for centuries.

The beginning:

the pink dust is the nebula

The formation is a very slow process, which takes millions to billions of years. All starts with nothing, similarly, the formation of stars with the clouds of dust called a nebula, which in Latin means mist.

1. Many experts that a massive explosion would occur which would emit a lot of heat and light, mainly energy. For example explosion of a supernova. And which in turn would cause the cloud of dust to go through a gravitational disturbance due to which the cloud of dust would begin sucking the objects around it

2. Some of them say that due to the mass contained in the cloud of dust, as we know that each object exerts a certain amount of gravity, which is directly proportional to the mass of an object. Due to its mass which exerts gravity, it attracts objects surrounding it, which happens slowly, and this could take over millions of years.

I find the first point more reasonable mainly because it seems all logical, if a supernova occurs it would result in the release of a massive amount of energy and would eventually cause gravitational disturbances in its surroundings.

While the second point, it is highly unlikely but would take a lot of time and by “a lot” I mean billions and trillions of years which is generally not possible because many supernovas or galactic collision could occur between this massive period and could very well do the job.

And if no “sources of massive energy” occur between these spans it would be a long journey because the cloud of dust would of negligible mass that is why maybe after billions of years it could pull objects surrounding it.

Formation of a protostar:

Now, when nebula begins to pull the surrounding objects towards it, particles heap up at the centre of nebula and by “particles” I mostly mean the atoms and Hydrogen and Helium because it's surrounding it is mostly made up of that.

As the particles become denser and denser more the energy and heat it emits. This heated centre is a protostar when the particles inside the nebula are much compressed and dense the atoms of helium and hydrogen fuse, resulting in nuclear fission which emits heat and light, this is the reason of how stars emit light, and this is the birth of a star.

Recap:

Just to sum the things, here’s how the stars are formed in two or three lines.

There is a cloud of dust named nebula, it begins to pull the surrounding objects around it due to the gravitational disturbance caused by a supernova explosion or galactic collision. It begins to pull the atoms towards it and the atoms due to the compression emit heat and energy which results in the formation of a protostar. Eventually, due to intense heat, the helium and hydrogen atoms fuse which causes heat and light

And this is how a star is born.

That’s the end of another post from Zeven, make sure to subscribe to our mail post and do follow us on Instagram by clicking here for daily updates.