If you have ever thought about the Solar System that we live in, you may have learnt that there is one Star (our Sun) and 8 planets of varying size. There are many more bodies than this, we have asteroids lying between Mars and Jupiter as well as most of the planets having moons.


Every so often we might be visited by a Comet, some of which live inside the Solar System whilst others pass through our Solar System on their orbit. Meteors and meteorites crash to Earth regularly, not many make it through the atmosphere though, they usually burn up.


So ... where did all of this come from?


It is postulated (suggested, put forward as a possibility) that the Universe started with a highly condensed and extremely hot region which exploded. This “Big Bang” gave birth to Space, Time and Matter. 


From the matter came the stars, but what are the processes in the formation of stars?


  • Dust particles drift together under their own gravitational field.
  • These particles get faster and faster, forming dense collections, dust clouds
  • As the dust clouds get closer, they pack together more densely until a ‘protostar’ is created (a star-to-be !)
  • Increasing particle collisions as the dust clouds get denser start to heat up the environment of the protostar.
  • Energy transfer takes place from the protostar Gravitational Potential Energy store to its Thermal Energy store.
  • If the heat build up is sufficient, Nuclear Fusion of Hydrogen to Helium takes place, even MORE energy is released.
  • The protostar gets hotter and brighter, it starts to shine - a star is born !



Stars like our Sun shine because of the energy released when Hydrogen nuclei fuse together to form Helium nuclei. There is a ‘balancing act’ of stellar proportions going on inside a star, maintaining a ‘balance’ which would be catastrophic to lose !!