• Question: how are the stars formed

    Asked by eloise to Heather, Helen, Hugh, Jane, Julian on 11 Nov 2014. This question was also asked by 268spaa38, Kyra2002, FelicityP, elena, #Niamh #wow, Amazing person called Aston Martin.
    • Photo: Julian Onions

      Julian Onions answered on 11 Nov 2014:

      Stars form when a big cloud of gas contracts and starts to heat up. Providing it can get cold enough (which sounds odd) it will condense down to a point where gravity starts to win squashing the cloud down into a star. if it gets hot enough, it will start to fuse hydrogen at which point it has become a star. This process can take several million years, depending how big the star will become.

    • Photo: Helen Johnson

      Helen Johnson answered on 12 Nov 2014:

      Yep, exactly that. You need lots of cool gas that can be compressed. When the pressure gets high enough you can form stars – the Hydrogen atoms will start fusing together to form Helium, and the star will start to ‘shine’. If this isn’t achieved we get what’s called a ‘brown dwarf’ instead.

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