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How a Star is Born Essay

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Cosmic Nurseries - Mommy, Where do Stars Come From?

Since my entire thesis for this paper is about how a star is born, I guess the first thing I should start out with is by telling you exactly what a star is. Stars are self-luminous gaseous spheres. They shine by generating their own energy and radiating it off into space. The stars' fuel for energy generation is the stuff they are made of --hydrogen, helium, carbon, etc. -- which they burn by converting these elements into heavier elements. Nuclear fusion occurs, which is when the nuclei of atoms fuse into nuclei of heavier atoms. The energy given off by a star through nuclear burning heatsits interior to many millions and, even in some cases to Pleiades Star …show more content…

During this time around the particles that make up the cloud have been getting even hotter and have been giving off more visible light and less infrared
Dark Bok Globules in IC 2944 radiation. Because it is cooler dust in the surrounding stellar nebula out of which the star is forming, it absorbs photons, heats up, and gives off energy as infrared radiation. As the star cools it also starts to spin much more rapidly. So, the stellar nebula hides the baby star until most of the surrounding gas and dust in the nebula is either attracted to it or blown away by it.(Goldberg, 1982) Eagle Nebula—formed by forming stars.

During the next step of star formation the spin, pressure, and temperature inside the interstellar cloud continue to increase. Due to these increases the Bok Globules will split into the protoplanetary disk and the central core. The protoplanetary disk has the potential to actually change form and become planets. On the other hand, the central core will go on to become one of those loveable pin pricks of light in the sky that we call stars. (Strobel, Unknown)

During the next step of stellar birth, the core continues to increase in temperature and whenthe forming star has stabilized itself, then it has become a protostar. The temperature of a protostar's surface is

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