gen-explain-the-life-cycle-of-a-star-as-you-would-to-a-capable-s-42d5

Explain the life cycle of a star as you would to a capable student, in 3-4 sentences.

A star begins when a cloud of gas and dust collapses under gravity, heating up until nuclear fusion ignites in its core, fusing hydrogen into helium and releasing enormous energy. For most of its life (the "main sequence" phase), the star steadily burns hydrogen while balanced between gravity pulling inward and radiation pressure pushing outward. When the hydrogen fuel runs low, the star's fate depends on its mass: low to medium-mass stars like our Sun swell into red giants before gently shedding their outer layers and leaving behind a dense white dwarf, while massive stars explode as supernovas and collapse into incredibly dense neutron stars or black holes.