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Stars and Their Characteristics
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Main Sequence Star
A star in the stable phase of its life cycle where it's fusing hydrogen into helium in its core.
Red Giant
A dying star that has exhausted its core hydrogen and expanded to many times its original size.
White Dwarf
A small, dense stellar remnant left after a red giant sheds its outer layers, no longer undergoing nuclear fusion.
Neutron Star
An incredibly dense stellar remnant composed almost entirely of neutrons, left over from the supernova explosion of a massive star.
Black Hole
A region of space where the gravitational pull is so strong that nothing, not even light, can escape from it.
Supernova
A powerful and luminous stellar explosion that marks the end of a massive star's life cycle.
Red Dwarf
A small and relatively cool star on the main sequence, of spectral type K or M.
Binary Star System
A system of two stars that are gravitationally bound and orbit a common center of mass.
Wolf-Rayet Star
A rare, massive star with a high rate of mass loss through powerful stellar winds.
Blue Supergiant
A massive star with high luminosity and a surface temperature exceeding 10,000 K.
Protostar
An early stage of a star's formation where the nebular material is contracting before nuclear fusion has begun.
Variable Star
A star whose brightness as seen from Earth fluctuates, either due to intrinsic or extrinsic factors.
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