Transcript: A star is a ball of gas held together by gravity where the temperature in the interior is sufficient to release energy by fusion reactions. The Sun is a typical star, but what sets the mass range of stars? Is it possible for example to have a star a thousand times less massive than the Sun or a thousand times more massive? The answer is no. Stellar physics dictates a particular range in which stars can exist. It spans a factor of about a thousand. Less than 0.08 times the mass of the Sun, that is eight percent of the mass of the Sun, the temperature in the interior never achieves the ten million degrees Kelvin needed to cause the fusion reaction of hydrogen to helium. Thus an object less than eight percent of the mass of the Sun is not a true star. It may indeed be a hot ball of gas, but it’s not releasing energy by fusion. Above about a hundred times the mass of the Sun, a gas cloud that collapses and might form a star collapses with such violence that it blows itself apart and never sets up a stable configuration. Thus there are natural limits to the mass ranges of stars.