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The pressure of the fusing gasses
The sun's immense gravitational pull created by its mass keeps it from falling. The gravitational force pulls the sun's gases and radiation inward, creating a balance with the outward pressure caused by nuclear fusion reactions in its core. This balance keeps the sun stable and prevents it from collapsing under its own weight.
Gravitational force pulls gas and dust particles together to form a nebula, while the outward pressure from gas particles pushing against each other (thermal pressure) prevents the nebula from collapsing under gravity. These two forces work together to stabilize a nebula.
The pressure caused by the thermal energy of the gas within the nebula pushes outward in all directions, preventing the nebula from collapsing under its own gravity. This pressure acts to counterbalance the force of gravity, maintaining the nebula's size and structure.
The process required to allow a gravitationally-collapsing gas cloud to continue collapsing is radiative cooling. Radiative cooling removes thermal energy from the gas cloud, facilitating further collapse under the influence of gravity.