How do stars stay alive? (Nuclear Fusion)The fuel inside the star called hydrogen its atoms inside the star are rapidly hitting each other. This cycle it is going through a process of Nuclear Fusion. Nuclear Fusion inside stars generates heat, electromagnetic radiation, visible light and also it is able to fuse heavy elements such as helium, silicon and oxygen. The more massive the star the higher its core temperature. This means that it can go through its fuel (hydrogen) quicker but also it can produce energy at a much quicker rate unlike stars which are smaller.
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How long will stars stay alive for?
Stars on the main sequence burn hydrogen into helium to make energy to keep it alive. Large stars often have higher core temperatures than smaller stars as its core is larger and also needs more energy to stay alive. Therefore large stars burn their hydrogen fuel tank in the core very quickly. So small stars burn its fuel more slowly than large stars. The length of time that the main sequence depends on is how quickly the hydrogen gets used up. So a large stars have shorter lifetimes than small stars because the large stars will run through their fuel more quicker than the small stars for example the Sun will burn for approximately another 10 billion years.