How does a star come about? Where does this gigantic source of energy come from?Thanks?
477535
There are huge clouds of gas and dust in various places in the universe. Some of these clouds are big enough that gravity causes parts them to contract. Sometimes this is accelerated by nearby supernovae. As as mass of gas contracts, it heats up. When it has contracted enough, it gets hot enough for nuclear fusion to start and you have a star. So ultimately the energy comes from the gravitational collapse.\n\nWe can actually see this process in several nebula right now. Look at the Hubble telescope pictures of the Eagle nebula. Just a couple of days ago a picture was released of the Tarantula nebula, which is a star birth area in a nearby galaxy.
1152122
A star is a big mass of gas. It originated as a hydrogen cloud  that started contracting because gravity pulled it together. When this happens the interior gets denser and hotter. Dense enough and hot enough for fusion reactions to start. The latter produce heat and light that pushes outwards.\n\nThe result is an equilibrium between gravity and the light radiation. The star stabilizes and stays stable for billions of years. The sun is in this stage.\n\nHowever, when the hydrogen is burnt up, the outward pressure is taken away and gravity takes over again. If the mass of this burnt out star is big enough, then there is nothing to counteract gravity.\n\nThe mass of the star will be more and more concentrated in a smaller and small volume. Gravity at the surface will become so strong that not even light can escape from it. \n\nThat is a black hole.
779126
If you mean when it goes supernova, it's because those rays require the most energy.  As the star is exploding, it is giving off it's highest energies in greater abundance.
128958
To simply, the sun is basically a gigantic collection of hydrogen gas that is being pushed together by an enormous force of gravity (each particle of hydrogen gas attracts each other).  When those atoms are forced together, they interact to form a continuious nuclear reaction which effectivly acts as a counter-force to the force of gravity.  So: Gravity pushes in, a nuclear explosion pushes out and the particles come to an equilibrium giving the sun a particular size.\n\nAs a star grows older, it begins to exhaust its supply of hydrogen fuel for the nuclear reaction and increases in size while decreasing in temperature.  At some point in the lifecycle of our sun, its size will actually expand to include the current position of the Earth.  However, current models indicate that Earth will move farther out in orbit, preventing its engulfment and destruction.\n\nAt any rate, as _our_ star (the Sun, sometimes called "Sol") continues to grow older, it will eventually shed these outer layers (thus creating a nebula) and condense into a very dense core and over time radiate away its energy.\n\nVery large stars can form black holes or neutron stars, regions of extreme gravitational forces, but our sun is small enough that it will form neither of these and just cool down into an inert ball of chemicals, no longer shining after it has radiated away its energy.\n\nHope that is helpful.
1104100
The protons and electrons formed into stellar bodies. The stellar bodies converted the hydrogen into helium, carbon, nitrogen, and some other lighter elements.   \n\nStars with a mass of more than 5 solar masses are subject to becoming supernova--a massive stellar explosion.  The energy produced by that explosion produced all of the heavier elements and distributed them throughout the galaxy where they were captured by other gravitational fields.
522759
To Answer the First part:\n\nThe life of a star is a continual struggle between the two forces of GRAVITY and NUCLEAR ENERGY. \nThe star’s self gravity or weight tries to compress the star into a smaller sphere of gas. But when a gas is compressed it gets hot, and in the core of a star the gas gets so hot (10 million Kelvins or more) that nuclear reactions occur. In a star like the Sun the nuclear reactions release more energy each second than one billion hydrogen bombs. As this energy works its way out of the star it balances the star’s self-gravity. For most of a star’s life an equilibrium is maintained between self gravity and energy.\n\nPSS Part 2\n\nNot sure what they want here. Since the "young star" is formed from the older star dust, it would have a higher proportion of heavier elements (like Iron and Silicon), since those elements would have been created in the older stars. A new protostar would never have been exposed to these heavier elements, so it would be still Hydrogen and Helium.
219383
Nothing. Even geothermal energy (heat from the center of the Earth) originally came from the Sun.
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Who created the energy the so called Big Bang came from?\nWe believe God has always been here, just like your energy has.
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We do not have nearly enough hydrogen present to create a sustainable star, the amount of hydrogen that fuels our sun is incredibly massive, think of the mass and gravity it exerts and then think of how long it's been burning and emitting heat and photons, and how long it will continue to go on for it's beyond our comprehension the mass required. Nor do we know how to effectively re-creat ethe inital fusion which leads to the contained reaction of a star
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It's very possible, and has been speculated by many scientists.  But the biggest negative arguement is: "Where did the first enormous star originate?"\n\nThis, however, could be the result of extremely concentrated mass, with no where to go but together.
1157832
Stars need hydrogen, period. The fancy name for what happens in the star is thermonuclear fusion, which just means that two hydrogen atoms are fused to make helium, and in the process release a lot of light and energy, allowing the star to shine. So, you know how when you pump up a bike tire, the pump gets hot? That's because you're compressing a fluid (in the case of stars it's hydrogen) and when you compress a fluid the fluid heats up (in this case it's the air heating up the pump). This heating up has to reach 25 million degrees before a star will shine, and the "pump" is gravity in this case. so a star has to have a lot of hydrogen from which to form if it's going to become hot enough to go into thermonuclear fusion.
201963
Gravity is only half of the picture.\n\nThe stars gravity does tend to pull the stars material towards the center of the star.\n\nHowever, there is also an expansive force - the force of the nuclear fusion reaction that is taking place inside the start.  This reaction creates light, heat, x-rays, cosmic rays and so on.. but it also pushes against the infalling star material, trying to push it back out.\n\nThe balance between gravity and fusion energy is why the star stays (about) the same size.\n\nSometimes gravity wins, and the star compresses all the way town to a neutron star or even a black hole.\n\nSometimes the nuclear reaction wins and the star explodes in a nova or supernova.\n\nMost stars are stable for a VERY long time (billions of years).
48781
kinda, but it isn't a star. it's fragments of space debris, meteors etc, burning up whilst passing thru the earth's atmosphere. From the ground it appears like a star shooting across the sky, hence it's name.
80797
It's a cycle of death and rebirth. A star will eventually go supernova, explode, and create stardust. These elements condense over millions of years to form a new star and new planets. This simple fact leads many scientists to the conclusion that a higher being must exist since it seems so neat and convenient to be just random chance. It seems like too useful a cycle, in other words. Like it was designed as such.
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Theres all sorts of energy.  Out in deep space energy is created from nothing, stays for a few microthousandths of a second then disappears again.  We live in a sea of energy, its everywhere- kinda like the force.\n\nThe trick, is figuring out a way to tap into it.  Look up "Moray valve" on the internet- supposedly some guy named Moray figured out a way to tap into this energy back in the 1950's but nobody knows how
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A source on every star is the continous fusion of hydrogen on it. When the fusion process stops the temperature of the star decreases and atmospheric layers condense on it. Due to the traces of hydrogen present in the atmospheric layers the fusion reactions may start again causing the star to expand 1000 times its original size.This is known as the red giant stage.\n\nDue to the expansion of outer layers star looses some of its mass and after a certain time forms a ball of 1/10^6 times its original size. This is known as the white dwarf stage.\n\nDue to high temperature and intense gravitional field the electrons in their atomic orbitals are forced to occupy higer energy levels.This leads to a pressure on the star and counteracts before the core collapse. This is known as degenerate electron pressure.\n\nIf the mass of the star is greater than 1.4 times than that of our sun the the degenerate electron pressure can't stop core collapse.the star gives out an explosive shock waves known as super nova.\n\nAfter the super nova the gravitional field is so intense that the protons and electrons on the star's surface are forced to combine. This is known as neutron star.\n\nIf mass of the star is 20 times that of the sun then neutron star can't withsatnd the gravitional force and explodes forming the black hole.\n\nThe gravitional force is so intense that the light can also not escape after entering it.if you really want to refer about black holes in deep try google.
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Yes. Starting from hydrogen, every element is produced inside stars by nuclear fusion. It's a cascade process: light elements join to form heavier elements, all the way down from hydrogen.