Stars are immense spheres made of plasma that use nuclear fusion to produce heat and light and are the most common source of them in the universe. The overwhelming majority of stars have planets, asteroids, dwarf planets and other celestial bodies orbiting them, formed from dust clouds that existed when they were just formed. Because stars are formed using gas and dust, they are incredibly common in nebulae as these regions are full of necessary materials for creating a star. Stars, like planets, are very diverse and range in size immensely - the smallest being no larger than a gas giant, while the largest dwarf Sol (an average sized star) over 1,000-fold.
Solar power, which is still one of the more common means of obtaining energy, uses starlight from its nearby star (or stars) and transforms it directly into power. Stars are also useful for starlifting, a process where large amounts of matter are removed from a star to be repurposed into an uncountable array of materials. In the present day, practically all mining operations take place in stellar atmospheres due to the sheer abundance of raw matter able to be harnessed in this manner. In general, the more massive a star is, the more likely it is to be used for starlifting. Notably, one of the most well-known applications of stars in technology is the dyson sphere, a structure that can singlehandedly power an entire system with near limitless energy left over. Dyson spheres constitute multiple layers of energy production, including massive solar panel arrays and numerous interconnected dark matter and ignitum reactors. However, due to their size often exceeding 1 AU, very few of them have been built.