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How are stars formed, why do they just blow up and fade away?How do we know the answer to this question? •A star is born when atoms of light elements are squeezed under enough pressure for their nuclei to undergo fusion. All stars are the result of a balance of forces: the force of gravity compresses atoms in interstellar gas until the fusion reactions begin. •Star Formation Shapes the Appearance of the Universe and Provides the Sites for Planets. •Step 1: initial collapse of an interstellar cloud. •Step 2: the cloud fragments into clumps . The fragmentation is related to turbulence in the collapsing cloud. ( ... •Step 3: The clumps collapse into a stars. How do we know the answer to this question? Astronomers in the US believe they have figured out how stars form from clouds of gas. They say that all stars are created by the gravitational collapse of large molecular clumps What are some of the different types of stars and what are their life cycles like? •Massive stars transform into supernovae, neutron stars and black holes while average stars like the sun, end life as a white dwarf surrounded by a disappearing planetary nebula. All stars, irrespective of their size, follow the same 7 stage cycle, they start as a gas cloud and end as a star remnant. •A star's life cycle is determined by its mass. The larger its mass, the shorter its life cycle. A star's mass is determined by the amount of matter that is available in its nebula, the giant cloud of gas and dust from which it was born. What was the contribution made by Russell Hertzsprung in all of this? •Danish astronomer who classified types of stars by relating their colour to their absolute brightness—an accomplishment of fundamental importance to modern astronomy. •Galileo was the father of both modern experimental physics and telescopic astronomy. He studied the acceleration of moving objects and, in 1610, began telescopic observations, discovering the nature of the Milky Way Who were some of the other scientists who made significant contributions to our understanding of the lifecycles of stars? •The Hertzsprung-Russell diagram, commonly referred to as the H-R diagram, is one of the most important diagrams in astronomy. Using this diagram, you can trace the evolutionary path a star will follow, which itself depends on the mass of the star.