The formation of stars

If research in astronomy had stopped in 1913, our knowledge of stellar evolution today would be in a satisfactory state. At that time astronomers had a plausible theory of a star’s life cycle. Einstein’s theory of relativity, advanced only a few years before, showed that mass and energy were interchangeable. It was therefore natural for astronomers to assume that stars were formed as large massive bodies which through successive century after century continued to radiate away matter. Ultimately most of the matter in a star, according to this picture, would be radiated away as light and heat. In this way all the stars, despite their large differences in mass, formed part of the same evolutionary sequence.

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