You are a STAR!!
Sounds to be cliché right? We usually say it as a motivational quote for encouragement. Telling other people that they are special, they are talented, they are STARS.
Now what if I tell you that it's actually true?
What if I tell you there is Science in it?
What if I tell you that you are made up of Stars?
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How Are Stars Formed?
Imagine you are in a class seated one seat apart. What wold you feel?
Pretty cool and comfortable right?
But what about imagining yourself in a very crowded class with students seated right to each other. What would you feel?
Pretty HOT!!
This is also what happens with stars. There are regions in the Universe where huge clumps of dusts and hydrogen gas can be found, they are stellar nurseries, they are the place where stars are born like the Pillars of Creation which can be found in the Eagle Nebula which is just one of the billions star forming regions in the Universe.
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Since a lot of dusts and hydrogen gas can be found in these regions of the Universe. Some dusts and hydrogen gas would group together slowly and slowly pulled together by the force we are all familiar of, Gravity. As it clumps more and more, it becomes bigger, as it becomes bigger, the gravity of that body becomes stronger and it attracts more dusts making it even bigger. Now with abundant amount of gas dusts clumped together, just like in a very crowded class, the temperature of that body increases. And as it becomes bigger and bigger its temperature sky rockets. And there you get a star.
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Life of a Star
Once a star is made, it will be on a constant battle against gravity. The gravity will always be on a mission to crush stars. As gravity crushes a star, it’s definitely like having a group hug with friends that gets tighter and tighter. And as the hydrogen gas gets compressed and packed tighter to each other due to gravity, the temperature becomes higher and higher until it reaches a point that the star becomes hot enough to support nuclear fusion of hydrogen turning them into helium. This process starts in the core of the star because the core is where everything is really packed therefore the area where it is the hottest.
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This nuclear fusion exerted by hydrogen turning into helium creates an outward force which is opposite to the force exerted by gravity which is inward. The star will reach an equilibrium where the outward force of nuclear fusion and inward force of gravity become equal and the star would just be happily burning its hydrogen fuel. This is the part where our Sun is in, this is called the Main Sequence. A star spends most of its life in the Main Sequence.
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However a star can’t stay like this forever, there comes a time when the star runs out of hydrogen gas and nuclear fusion will cease. The outward force exerted will be lesser than the inward force of gravity, and gravity will eventually win. However as gravity crush and crush a star, the star would be able to find a life-line, Helium. The star will become sufficiently hot this time and fuse Helium into Carbon and nuclear fusion will gain strength again. The process will continue and a star will convert these lighter elements into heavier elements until it reaches Iron. The ability of a star to convert lighter elements into heavier ones will depend on its size. The bigger the star, the more matter can be compressed to raise the temperature high enough to support fusion for heavier elements. For a star like our Sun, a lower mass star, it will only be able to convert until Helium, it will try to convert it into Carbon but it will fail. For lower mass stars their death are most likely to be silent. Most of them are just going to slowly fade away. However for Giant Stars, they will be able to convert heavier elements further. Iron is the heaviest element that a giant star can create.
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The star will continue to crush a giant star and the giant star will try to convert iron into heavier element but the star won’t be able to convert Iron anymore. The giant star will become unstable and will die on a colossal explosion, a Supernova. After a supernova, a star would leave a very massive object that would warp the space-time which we call a blackhole, you can read more about it on this post of mine HERE
Supernova
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Black Hole
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A supernova is more than just an explosion, it is not just a fireworks display on space it means much more for the Universe and for us. During a supernova elements heavier than iron are directly and indirectly created. The exploded matter from the star would be the ingredients for a creation of another star, a planet, or other celestial bodies. This means that everything on Earth came from stars that exploded. All the Iron that you can see, all the Oxygen that you breath, all the Calcium, Iron, Sodium, Carbon, Fluorine and etc. in your body came from exploded stars. If you wish to track your family tree, you would find stars at the beginning of it.
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The saying that goes "You are a Star” is indeed more than just a saying, it is actually a science fact because we are made up of Star stuffs.
Isn't that Amazing??
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If you want to learn more about this, you can check these amazing links and references: