The rock waits patiently in the vast expanse of space; will it ever get its moment of glory?

At last, out of the void, a light appears and starts to fill a nearby piece of space. Details appear – first the blues, then the greens, the whites, the yellows and browns. Around the object the thinnest skin of gas glows bright, in places the blue seems to catch fire, mirroring the glow from the sun.

Closer and closer it approaches, for the first time in aeons the rock experiences a pull. Slowly, imperceptably, it starts to accelerate towards this intruder in its waiting game. The object rushes towards it, growing larger, the pull ever stronger. The temperature starts to rise, the terrible cold of space dismissed by this object that now fills the rocks universe.

At last stardom beckons – the rocks time has come. Flashing onto the cosmic stage, a plasma glow surrounds the hot, the red then the white hot core. The objects atmospheric dresser peels away the rocks outer skin. Pressure increases to unbelievable levels then….

The watchers stare entranced at the night time sky. The constellations wheel in the inky blackness; the milky way, a cummerband of palest white across the sky. There! A streak of light across the sky, afterglow trailing behind, and then the flash.

Plasma heat, following a fault, reaches inside the rock and expands trace gasses it finds there. The rocks moment has arrived; from ugly rock to glowing beauty - a million shards of white hot dust. A star is born!