Stars live and die over the course of millions to billions of years. It is unusual to see changes in individual stars. To learn more about them, we must piece together snapshots of stars at different life stages — from birth to death.

The birth, life, and rebirth of stars is an ongoing process in the universe. The byproducts of this process include planets and the elements that make life possible.

THE EAGLE NEBULA

Stars form in huge clouds of hydrogen gas. This picture shows the Eagle nebula, in which stars are now being born. Millions of years from now the clouds seen here will be gone — eroded away by radiation and matter emanating from the newborn stars. Our own Sun probably formed from a similar cloud about 4.6 billion years ago.