Stars themselves don't give birth to other stars in the biological sense, but they absolutely can and do "give birth" to planetary systems. This process is closely tied to the star's own formation and even its later stages of life.
Here's a breakdown:
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Star Formation and Protoplanetary Disks: Stars are born from giant clouds of gas and dust. As gravity pulls this material together, it forms a rotating disk around the newly forming star, called a protoplanetary disk.
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Birth of Planets: Within this protoplanetary disk, dust grains collide and stick together. Over millions of years, these clumps grow larger, eventually forming planetesimals and then full-fledged planets. This is the sense in which a star "gives birth" - it creates the conditions and provides the material for planets to form around it.
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Planetary Systems Form Around Young Stars: The reference states that planets are usually not much older than the stars they orbit, using our own solar system as an example. This reinforces the idea that planet formation is intrinsically linked to a star's early life.
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Even Dying Stars Can Still Give Birth to Planets (Indirectly): While a star can't create new planets after it enters its death throes, the material ejected from dying stars can enrich the surrounding interstellar medium. This enriched material can then contribute to the formation of new stars and planetary systems elsewhere.
In summary, while stars don't reproduce through biological processes, they provide the raw materials and environment necessary for planets to form around them during their early stages, essentially "giving birth" to planetary systems. And, in a more indirect way, the death of a star can contribute to the birth of future stars and planets elsewhere in the galaxy.
