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space. One of these giant balls was quite close to the window now, and George could it

spinning round, getting smaller and smaller all the time. As it shrank, it became hotter
and hotter, so hot that George could feel the heat from where he sat on the sofa. And
then it started to glow with a dim but frightening light.

“Why is it glowing?” asked George.

“The more it shrinks,” said Eric, “the hotter it gets. The hotter it gets, the brighter it
shines. Very soon it’s going to get too hot.

The ball exploded from the inside, throwing off its outer layers of burning hot gas
in all directions. After the explosion, the ball was shining like the Sun. “Wow!” said
George. “Is that the

Sun?” “It could be.”
Eric replied. “That’s
how stars are born
and the Sun is a star.
When a huge amount
of gas and dust

combines and shrinks
to become dense and
hot, as you’ve just
seen, the particles in

the middle of the ball
are so pressed together
that they start to fuse
or join up, releasing
an enormous amount.
This is called a nuclear
What you Think?ou Think?
fusion reaction. It is so What y
powerful that when it
starts, it throws off the
outer Sun through the
special window. Are

there differences between layers of the ball, and the rest is transformed into a star, the
Sun and other stars? That’s what you just saw.”

The star was now shining steadily in the distance. It was a beautiful sight. George gazed
at it, amazed by its power. Every now and then he could see huge jets of brightly shining
gases sent hundreds of thousands of miles from the surface at extraordinary speeds.
“And the star will keep on shining like this for ever?” he asked.

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