Evolutionary stages of stars
The career of a star depends crucially on its mass. The more massive the star, the more pressure is built up inside. The evolution of stars is enumerated in the table below.
Small stars: Become brown dwarfs, not particularly bright or dramatic.
Medium mass stars: These are stars like our sun, less than 1.4 solar masses (the Chandrasekhar limit).
Combines hydrogen into helium.
Runs out of hydrogen, and flares into a red giant.
Collapses into a white dwarf
Massive stars: Stars with masses greater than 1.4 solar masses
Extremely massive stars: These are very massive stars, the cutoff is not exactly understood.
The dynamics of the interior of a star is a subfield of nuclear physics. Thus, micoscopic modeling is essential to understanding the behavior of these enormous objects.