How are the fate-determining processes of stars in the universe similar to our own course registration wars, and what can they teach us?

This article explains how stars come into being by gathering interstellar material, expend their energy, and live their lives, comparing it to college students’ class schedules, and discusses the lessons that their life according to the laws of nature can teach us.

 

One hour left! My phone is buzzing with messages. Today is the day to sign up for classes. The fate of a semester hangs in the balance. Some are greedy for a better timetable, while others bide their time. This is happening in South Korea, a small country on a small planet, but stars in the far reaches of the universe are also taking the time to sign up for courses that will determine the rest of their lives.
Registration day is a fierce battle for college students. Countless clicks and fast internet speeds are the difference between winning and losing, and every nerve is on the line to get the classes you want. One mistake can mess up your schedule, or you can get lucky and get the perfect schedule. The tension and excitement that naturally arises during this process is reminiscent of the stars deciding their destiny.
Just as there are tons of lectures waiting for us to choose, there are also things in outer space waiting for the stars to choose. It’s called interstellar matter. Interstellar matter is mostly hydrogen and helium. Stars begin to attract interstellar material that will be with them for the rest of their lives. Their worlds look much like ours, with some stars greedily attracting tons of interstellar matter and others being frugal and attracting only a few.
This gathering of interstellar matter moves and bumps into other interstellar matter, which in turn generates heat. This is called gravitational contraction, and it is this gravitational contraction that marks the birth of stars. The process of star formation is very dramatic, and it’s just as exciting as the suspense of signing up for a course. The process is similar to clicking on a class and signing up for a course in a classroom, as interstellar matter is compressed by gravity, and under that pressure, stars are born. However, stars do this process over millions of years, and we click in a matter of seconds.
In order for the newborn stars to continue to shine, they need their own food. Their food is not miso stew or chicken, but the gases that make up their bodies. “Eating your own body?” sounds pretty weird, but you’ll have to settle down and read on. The interstellar material that the stars were attracted to is mostly hydrogen. When this hydrogen reaches very high temperatures, the four nuclei of hydrogen atoms merge and turn into the nuclei of the next element, helium. This is called the hydrogen fusion reaction.
But there’s something interesting to note here. Even though four hydrogen nuclei have merged into a helium nucleus, if you compare their masses, the helium nucleus is slightly smaller! It’s almost as if the laws of physics are wrong. If you ask a star about this problem, it might say something like this “Less mass? I ate it!” Even the smallest amount of mass, when converted into energy, releases unimaginable amounts of energy. In other words, the star lives off the energy it has converted into light.
Your friend who tried to enroll in a course out of greed is likely to fall into a pit of failure. What is the lifetime of a greedy star? A greedy star attracts tons of interstellar material and maintains a large mass. These massive (or massive) stars eat faster than anyone else to maintain their high temperatures. In a fast-feeding star, i.e., one with rapid hydrogen fusion reactions, hydrogen is produced, followed by helium fusion, carbon fusion, and finally iron.
Eventually, the greedy star, which has no more elements to produce, explodes with a tremendous burst of energy. This is called a “supernova explosion,” and it’s like a greedy college student dropping a lecture after a few days. The remnants of the supernova explosion are scattered back into space, waiting to be picked up by new stars. And the center of a supernova explosion can leave a gaping wound called a black hole.
Stars of moderate mass, on the other hand, enjoy a steady diet for about 10 billion years before they pass through the red giant stage, where they increase in both luminosity and size, and finally become white dwarfs, shining brightly in a corner of the universe as if they weren’t there at all. The Sun we see every day is a moderately ambitious star that has been eating a steady diet for five billion years and is expected to do so for another five billion.
The world of stars looks a lot like ours. Stars gather interstellar material, dying quickly for more massive stars and slowly for less massive stars. Their meal consists of eating their own bodies, and when they die, they scatter their bodies back into space for the next generation. But the process always follows strict natural laws. The difference is that the stars live their lives according to the laws of nature without anyone watching over them. I like to think of them as honest and fair. As we look up at the sun and the night sky every day, I think we need to emulate their honesty and fairness.