The Life Cycle of Stars

The nucleus at the center of the Whirlpool Galaxy,
at the center of which is a black hole

Like humans, stars have a birth, an exciting and interesting life, and a death. A star's mass from its "formative" years determines the path that a star's life cycle will take. Throughout their lives, stars can grow, shrink, heat, cool, change color, explode, and even just fade away.