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a star isn't made,its a creation
The squashing of the gas and dust as it enters a spiral arm of the Galaxy makes new stars form all the time. The gas collects in cold dark clouds like the one shown here, and stars form inside it, often in groups of several tens of stars. It is unfortunate that star birth happens in these cloudy cocoons, because they make it difficult for us to watch what is happening. In particular we cannot tell how easy it is for planets to form around new stars.
After the first few millions of years following creation of the universe, dust and gasses, which were a byproduct of the creation, formed into clouds by the action of gravity. As time passed, gravity began to coalesce the dust cluds into ever more dense material. If the material continued to grow because of gravity it began to gain greater and greater mass, which produced more gravity, which produced more mass... until the contraction of the mass formed stars by the increasing internal temperature, finally to the point of ignition of hydrogen fusion. Gravity would like to make the star as small as possible, but the fusion reactions stabilize it and keep it from contracting any further or collapsing. The whole life story of a star from here on out is told by the battle between gravity and nuclear fusion, first one, then the other getting the upper hand.
Most stars are made almost entirely of hydrogen (about 90% by number of atoms) and helium (about 10%), elements that are relatively rare on our planet. About a tenth of a percent is left over, that tenth containing all the other elements found in nature and in our planet Earth. Keep in mind, what I've described is applicable to our sun, which is fairly rare, whereas other types of stars (there are many) can deviate considerably, depending on their states of aging or upon where they are in the Galaxy.
Here's a link showing a dust cloud that is already birthing stars... many of these can be seen with the naked eye in our own Galaxy...
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap010426.html
...And, here's a link to an article that just appeared in today's paper here in U.S.
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/science/space/2006-03-16-big-bang-expansion_x.htm
Timely as it pertains to this question and thread...
clanad.
the picture with the expanding of space. does anyone really believe that every star, planet, moon, In fact "everything" came from something "marble" sized ?
the graph is scaled form zero to 13.7 billion years. so in a millisecond, we had nothing, we had everything ! how can we go from o-13.7 BILLION YEARS INSTANTLY ???
must be an American scientist that thought that one up..... give him the Nobel prize.
I think, funkymoped, you are misinterpreting the time scale. Although the scale starts at the beginning (actually, we can only go back with any assurance to 10-43 seconds or Planck Time) and runs to the current best guess as to age, being 13.7 billions of years old, the scale is given and annotated to indicate the major occurrences along the way, i.e., inflation, formation of stars, etc. Additionally, the depiction gives the impression that the universe has defined edges, which it does not. As well, the shape depicted is somewhat cylindrical, whereas current measurements indicate it to be essentially flat.
What is confirmed, however, is the first phenomena in the first trillionths of the first second, is the inflation from the "marble size" (actually much,much smaller) to to several thousands of light years in size. Leading one emminent (yes, American) astrophysicist to note that "The creation event appears to have occurred every where at once". The second noted phenomena of special interest, is the appearnce of light (photon plasma) as the first observable (if anyone has been there to observe) indication of the creation event. All this initial stanza of the event indicates speeds far greater than the speed of light, leading scientists to theorize the laws of physics noted today did not apply at the quantum level... never to be repeated...
What is confirmed, however, is the first phenomena in the first trillionths of the first second, is the inflation from the "marble size" (actually much,much smaller) to to several thousands of light years in size. Leading one emminent (yes, American) astrophysicist to note that "The creation event appears to have occurred every where at once". The second noted phenomena of special interest, is the appearnce of light (photon plasma) as the first observable (if anyone has been there to observe) indication of the creation event. All this initial stanza of the event indicates speeds far greater than the speed of light, leading scientists to theorize the laws of physics noted today did not apply at the quantum level... never to be repeated...
This depiction is not of what the big bang looked like or the current universe looks like but as Clannad has explained, a time plot of the universe, showing its relative size, from the initial event (on the left) up until today (on the right).
Begram, This is a fascinating point in regards to the Big Bang. If we could somehow experience near light speed motion, our clock would tick at a �normal� rate and it would appear to us that we were exceeding the speed of light in relation to the distance we traveled in a given amount of time. If we could actually reach the speed of light it would seem to us that we could travel the expanse of the universe instantly without ageing. Photons do not experience time at all as they travel at velocity C. How this relates to the Big Bang itself is beyond my comprehension but it is intriguing to speculate about.
kermit911, I hope your question was answered to your satisfaction. If not, please advise.
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