Startling Star Fact:
Did you ever watch and listen when someone lights a barbecue grill or turns on a stove? First you hear a sound like air leaking out, then WHOOSH!, the fire roars to life. That is a special kind of air, called gas. Stars are great big balls of burning gas! If you had a magic spacesuit that would protect you from fire, you could actually pass right through a star.
After millions of years, all the gas burns up, the star gets smaller and it contracts into a very small dense dark rock called a dwarf. A speck of one of these dwarfs, the size of an M&M, weighs more than a dump truck full of boulders!