Hawking (1988: 82-3):
A star is formed when a large amount of gas (mostly hydrogen) starts to collapse in on itself due to its gravitational attraction. As it contracts, the atoms of the gas collide with each other more and more frequently and at greater and greater speeds — the gas heats up. Eventually, the gas will be so hot that when the hydrogen atoms collide they no longer bounce off each other, but instead coalesce to form helium. The heat released in this reaction, which is like a controlled hydrogen bomb explosion, is what makes the star shine. This additional heat also increases the pressure of the gas until it is sufficient to balance the gravitational attraction, and the gas stops contracting. … When a star runs out of fuel, it starts to cool off and so to contract.
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From the perspective of Systemic Functional Linguistic Theory, according to General Relativity, the collapse of the hydrogen gas is actually the contraction of the space occupied by gas cloud. Because the contraction of space brings the atoms closer together, it increases the probability of them colliding and coalescing (via deuterium) to form helium atoms.
On this basis, the balance that is achieved is between the gravitational contraction of space intervals and the expansion of the volume of matter-energy (the star itself). When a star runs out of fuel, it no longer expands to counterbalance the gravitational contraction of the space it occupies.
On this basis, the balance that is achieved is between the gravitational contraction of space intervals and the expansion of the volume of matter-energy (the star itself). When a star runs out of fuel, it no longer expands to counterbalance the gravitational contraction of the space it occupies.
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