Giant molecular clouds in the interstellar medium serve as the nurseries for stars. Describe the physical processes that lead to the formation of a stable main-sequence star of similar mass to our Sun from such a cloud.
Terrestrial commercial nuclear power reactors currently rely entirely on nuclear fission rather than nuclear fusion to generate electricity.
The graph below shows how the fusion reaction rates for Deuterium-Tritium (D-T) and Deuterium-Deuterium (D-D) fuels vary with the core temperature of a reactor (in millions of Kelvin, MK):
Using the graph and your scientific knowledge of nuclear physics, compare the fundamental mechanisms of nuclear fission and nuclear fusion, and explain why commercial power generation on Earth is restricted to fission.