One mission of the Hubble Space Telescope is to observe star-formation regions, he said.
Stars form from huge clouds of dust and gas.
If a cloud begins to contract because of its own gravity, its interior heats up as gravitational energy is converted to heat energy, reaching millions of degrees, and nuclear reactions begin that change one element into another, releasing energy. The pressure tends to expand the cloud back out, Walborn said, but eventually equilibrium is reached. A star has a finite lifetime because it is burning fuel. For 90 percent of its life, it burns hydrogen into helium. When the hydrogen is used up, the pressure decreases, but gravity never disappears, so the star contracts until the temperature climbs again, this time reaching hundreds of millions of degrees, while reactions convert helium to carbon and oxygen.