Star Formation

Long, long ago, our sun began its life as a mere twinkle in the universe's eye. How did it become the ruler of our solar system?

Outlined below are the steps involved in a star’s evolution, from its formation in a nebula, to its death as a white dwarf or a neutron star. Nebula: a

The evolution of a star depends on its mass. Low- and medium-mass stars, such as the Sun, ultimately end up as white dwarfs. High-mass stars become neutron stars, while the highest-mass stars end up as black holes.

Some 60 million light-years away in the southerlyconstellation Corvus, two large galaxies are colliding. Stars in the two galaxies, cataloged as NGC 4038 and NGC 4039, very rarely collide in the course of the ponderous cataclysm that lasts for hundreds of millions of years. But the galaxies' large clouds of molecular gas and dust often do, triggering furious episodesof star formation near the center of the cosmic wreckage

The Star Cycle -

This diagram shows the stellar evolution of low-mass stars (on the left) and high-mass stars (on the right.)

The life cycle of a star

The new super space observatory probes a dynamic star factory 200,000 light years from Earth.