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Function
By the process of nuclear fusion, stars emit massive amounts of energy in the forms of light and heat. Nuclear fusion occurs at a star's core. The center of a star, then, is a dynamic raging mass of energy. Atoms of hydrogen form helium. If nuclear fusion continues, in the case of stars that are hot enough and large enough, helium forms carbon, which forms oxygen. The process stops when iron is formed. When iron forms, energy is required rather than released. With the formation of each new element, a star forms a new layer.
Features
The Earth's Sun is an example of what the inside of a star looks like in its prime. The core of our Sun, at 15 million degrees Celsius, is the site of nuclear fusion of hydrogen and helium gases and is the source of the star's shine. Energy drives out of the Sun's core through the convection zone where gases boil and bubble with the Sun's energy. The fact that nuclear fusion occurs in the Earth's Sun from hydrogen to helium shows that this star is relatively young. On its surface, the Sun is a significantly cooler 5500 degrees Celsius. More activities occur at and above the Sun's surface.
Types
Blue stars' temperatures range between 20,000-45,000 ° F. Blue stars have extremely hot, dense cores. After about 100 million years, blue stars cease fusion. The stars expand into blue supergiants or blue-white supergiants. Over the course of another several million years, the star cools into a red supergiant. After death, these stars can become neutron stars or black holes. Yellow stars can be yellow, orange or red, depending on temperatures. Yellow stars can live as long as 10 billion years. When fusion stops, they cool and form red giants, which expand into planetary nebulae with a white dwarf at the center, dense with almost all of the original star's mass. White dwarves cool over billions of years into red and, finally, black dwarves.
Effects
The stage of a star's life cycle determines its effect on its galactic environment. In the case of the Earth's Sun, the energy created by nuclear fusion provides exactly the right amount of heat and light for life on one planet--Earth. Those effects begin to differ for the planets in our solar system that are closer to and further away from the Sun. The obvious effects of any star's life stage is its ability, given all other necessary factors, to sustain life as we know it. A star's level of energy and size would determine its effects on its neighbors. Other effects include the theoretical effects of black holes and their possible roles in the existence of solar systems and galaxies. The properties of the insides of black holes hypothetically can be the way solar systems or galaxies die.
Considerations
The structure of stars and their life cycles provide food for thought. A star has the potential to sustain life and to end a life in its vast vicinity. Supernovas and black holes, with their enormously different energies are subjects of intense investigation and speculation. Astronomers devote their entire lives to studying the evolution of stars that have long since died. With the birth of every star comes spectacular potential. Sometimes potential is realized as with the confluence of factors that can make a star an abundant source of diverse life, such as the Earth's Sun. But there is more to know and perhaps much more that will never be known.