Stars are born, they shine for millions or billions of years and then they die. Each star has a life cycle of several stages during which its size and temperature change dramatically. The main property that determines how long a star will shine and how it evolves is its mass )the amount of matter the star contains). The more massive the star, the more quickly it burns up its gases in nuclear reactions, and the sooner it dies. The most massive stars last for a few million years. Those with less mass can shine for tens of billions of years.
The ten brightest stars are listed below, with a short biography on each.
