thermal energy
-
What Happens in an Expanding Star’s Core?
Depending on their mass, stars can remain stable for millions and even billions of years. The most massive stars live for “only” about 10 million years, but models predict that the least massive live for much longer — longer than…
-
From Cold Cloud to Hot Protostar
Paradoxically, stars begin in the galaxy’s coolest places: the dense giant molecular clouds (or GMCs). This is not quite the paradox it seems, as in the beginning, stars require little else but gravity to form. And that’s really quite lucky, because…
-
How are Stars Born?
Astronomers have discovered that the clouds of gas and dust — the interstellar medium (ISM) — found between the stars are made of the same materials as the stars themselves. In fact, hydrogen is the most common element in both…
-
Stars and Radiation
Stars are hot. Really hot. Hot enough to have energy to spare for their planets. If our star wasn’t hot, we couldn’t live on Earth. And our star isn’t even particularly hot for a star. It’s a middle-aged star of…
