What are stars?

A star is an astronomical object consisting of a glowing ball of plasma held together by its own gravity. The

nearest star to the Earth is the Sun. Many other stars are visible to the naked eye at night; their great

distances from the Earth make them fixed points of light. The most visible stars are classified into

constellations and stars, and many of the brighter stars have names of their own. Astronomers have

compiled star catalogs that identify known stars and provide standardized star names. There are an

estimated 1022-1024 stars in the observable universe. Only about 4,000 of those stars are visible to the

naked eye—all in the Milky Way galaxy.[1]

A star-forming region in the Large Magellanic Cloud

The life of a star begins with the gravitational collapse of a gas nebula composed mostly of hydrogen, helium

and heavier elements. Its total mass primarily determines its development and eventual fate. A star shines

for most of its active life due to the fusion of hydrogen into helium in its core. This process releases energy

that travels within the stars and radiates into space. At the end of a star's life, its core becomes a stellar

remnant: a white dwarf, a neutron star, or—if it's massive enough—a black hole.

Stellar nucleosynthesis in stars or their remnants creates almost all naturally occurring chemical elements

heavier than lithium. Stellar mass loss or supernova explosions return chemically enriched material to the

interstellar medium. These elements are recycled into new stars. Astronomers can determine a star's

properties—including its mass, age, metallicity (chemical composition), variability, distance, and motion in

space—by observing changes in a star's apparent brightness, spectrum, and position in the sky. over time.

Stars can form orbital systems with other astronomical objects, such as planetary systems and star systems

with two or more stars. When two such stars orbit close to each other, their gravitational interaction can

greatly influence their evolution. Stars can form part of a much larger gravitationally bound structure, such as

a star cluster or galaxy.