This movie shows the evolution of a star 10 times more massive than our sun. The blue color of the star’s surface visible in the first frame is the result of this higher mass.
Each star spends most of its life in a phase known as the main sequence, during which it burns hydrogen into helium at its center and it slowly expands (as the reference circles show) to accommodate the energy produced via this nuclear fusion.
Credit: Credit: Stellar simulation by Vicky Kalogera, Bart Willems and Francesca Valsecchi. Visualization by Matthew McCrory. Funding: NSF and LIGO