this post was submitted on 24 Jul 2026
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Science

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(no, actually) Could objects like stars be considered living? (sopuli.xyz)
submitted 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) by sbeak@sopuli.xyz to c/science@mander.xyz
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Often, we call the stages of a star its "life cycle", and I've been thinking about this for a bit.

Stars meet many of the requirements for living organisms: they can consume matter, they can react to stimuli (sort of, does gravity count? e.g. binary systems), they can reproduce (they expel gas clouds on death that can eventually create new stars), they can grow and change size over their lifespan, and they maintain equilibrium (between gravity and radiation pressure from fusion)

What stops stars from being considered living objects?

edit: as it turns out, the formation of new stars after death doesn't really count as reproduction, and gravity shouldn't count as stimuli (a rock experiences gravity too, but it doesn't react to stimuli)

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[โ€“] tangeli@piefed.social 6 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

You're already considering it, so the trivial answer is: yes.

The harder questions are: what do you mean by living? What do other people mean or understand by living? How does any particular definition of living help someone understand, communicate about and predict events?

[โ€“] Droechai@piefed.blahaj.zone 1 points 2 weeks ago

Do they pay taxes? Do they dread the amount of trivial tasks to time ratio? Do they dream of electric sheep? Those are the three questions you should ask any entity claiming "life"