
Star - Wikipedia
A star is a luminous spheroid of plasma held together by self-gravity. [1] The nearest star to Earth is the Sun. Many other stars are visible to the naked eye at night; their immense distances from Earth …
Star | Definition, Light, Names, & Facts | Britannica
Dec 20, 2025 · A star is any massive self-luminous celestial body of gas that shines by radiation derived from its internal energy sources. Of the tens of billions of trillions of stars in the observable universe, …
Stars - NASA Science
May 2, 2025 · A star’s gas provides its fuel, and its mass determines how rapidly it runs through its supply, with lower-mass stars burning longer, dimmer, and cooler than very massive stars.
What Is a Star and How Does It Work? - ThoughtCo
May 8, 2025 · How does a star work? How do they form, live, and eventually die? Learn more about these distant objects and their major importance in the universe.
What is a star? - Cool Cosmos
A star is a huge sphere of very hot, glowing gas. Stars produce their own light and energy by a process called nuclear fusion. Fusion happens when lighter elements are forced to become heavier elements. …
Star – Definition & Detailed Explanation - Sentinel Mission
Oct 22, 2025 · Main Sequence: The protostar continues to collapse until nuclear fusion begins in its core, leading to the formation of a stable star. This stage is known as the main sequence, where the …
What is a Star? (article) | Stars | Khan Academy
Though stars may appear static, they rotate and vary in luminosity. There are hundreds of billions of stars in the Milky Way Galaxy alone. Among them is our Sun, the closest star to Earth.
What Is a Star? | Scientific American
Apr 11, 2025 · In a very broad sense, a star is simply one of those twinkling points of light you can see in the night sky. But that’s not terribly satisfying in either lexicological or physical terms.
Fact sheet: Star - Canadian Space Agency
A star is a giant ball of hot gas that can be compared to a huge engine – hydrogen is its primary fuel. Atoms in the core of stars join together in a physical reaction known as nuclear fusion, releasing …
What is a Star? - Universe Guide
Dec 20, 2025 · The simplest way to describe a star is that it is a great ball of fire, but it is more complicated than that. A star is a giant ball of hydrogen turning into helium through nuclear fusion.