In clouds from which stars are formed, the distribution of gases and dust are not totally uniform – some places are denser than others. Those concentrations of denser gas grow because they have more gravitational force.
Instability comes from randomness and non-conformity of the gases. Successful clouds that end up being stars have to get rid of angular momentum. The area from which a star is formed has a net rotation or spin like a dancer, bringing their arms in to spin faster and faster, which produces centrifical force. Centrifical force tends to go radially outward, gravitational force goes radially inward. If the two forces get equalized, the process of star formation stops.
A small amount of mass and weight at a distance has the same impact physics-wise as a large mass and weight close up [just like life!]. Clouds get rid of angular momentum by forming a disc that evolves into planets, which allows a star to collapse by its own gravity to heat high enough to start a process of nuclear fusion, burning off gases to form the final star. Typically the result is one star and a number of planets, comets, asteroids, etc. Some never make it because they cannot form their discs, others can.
So the applicability to my metaphor is that there are some forces that need to be overcome and resolved before a cloud is able to form a star.
Binary & Tertiary stars There are sometimes 2 or even three stars rotating around each other (maybe 30% of the time), so no disc is formed, or it is such an unstable system that it does not last. There don ot seem to be planets formed, and maybe only a few comets.
The content of a star depends on the generation or age of the cloud from which it formed. Initially stars were formed from hydrogen and helium. When they blow up, as stars inevitably will, they spew carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, iron, etc. Second generation star clouds include the dust of earlier generations.
The universe is expanding rapidly, meaning that at some point the density will drop so low that gravity will not be able to form stars, and all will go black – this will be in billions of years. Then, perhaps there will be another big bang, when the universe is inside a point that expands and explodes.
External Impact
Regarding the external impacts that might help stars to form, think of the photos of giant spirals or pinwheels – the spiral arms are open to gravity waves that pass by and shock the interstellar medium (gas) in the background, compressing an area of high density, so the process of star formation is accelerated.
A galaxy is 200B stars (2 with 11 zeros behind it). About a third of those stars have planets around them – so a galaxy has about 70B planetary systems, or 700B stars (given that there are typically on the order of 10 stars per planetary system, at least there are in our planetary system…)
Within a planetary system there are giant planets like Jupiter, tiny ones like Mars, Venus, Pluto. If Jupiter were much larger, would be a star. Huge planets can become stars – when they keep growing by accretion of stuff around them. Stars are defined as a planet that generates its own heat rather than absorbing the heat of others.
The brightest stars are the shortest lived. Each star has a certain mass of fuel. Depending on how quickly that mass is used dictates how long the star will last. Our sun will last 50 B years; others may only last a million years.
— this white paper is compiled from a conversation I had with my first business mentor and, later, former client, Dr. Richard Huguenin, an internationally-recognized Physicist and Radio Astronomer. Richard was uniquely positioned to understand what I do, so when I asked him how applicable the Dancing Star metaphor and quote is for what I do with my clients, he had a ready (if involved!) response. Given the discrepancy in our expertise around stars, it is likely I misunderstood some of what he said, so any errors in the above are mine.