The Death of Stars
ESA/Hubble, CC BY 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons It is estimated that there are “about 100 thousand million stars in the Milky Way alone” [1] , our Sun being one of them. All life on Earth is powered by the Sun which generates energy through nuclear fusion: the process in which light nuclei combine to form heavier nuclei. The protons and neutrons in the resultant nuclei are more tightly bound than in the initial, fusing nuclei. This movement to a more stable, lower energy state means that energy is released during fusion. In order to achieve nuclear fusion, the strong nuclear force must overcome the electrostatic repulsion between the positively charged nuclei. Since the strong nuclear force is a short-range force, this only occurs when nuclei are very close together. An increase in kinetic energy of the nuclei is required to overcome the electrostatic repulsion and bring the nuclei together. [2] Therefore, stars like the Sun have id