All stars are born in giant clouds of interstellar gas and dust; they live a stable phase fusing elements in their cores; and they eventually die. An average mass star, such as our Sun, will die quietly as a beautiful planetary nebula and slowly fade away as a white dwarf.
In this first of two lectures on stellar evolution, I will talk about the birth of stars in general… how they live their lives by fusing lighter elements into heavier ones in their cores… and finally, we’ll see the death process of a Sun-like star.
