Is there a way to change this input:

twenty four Number of hours for earth to rotate around its axis.
laser Monochromatic light
proton Positively charged particle of an atom.
acceleration Force equals mass times ____________.




To this format which can then be picked up by a program?

twenty four
laser
proton
acceleration
*
Number of hours for earth to rotate around its axis.
Monochromatic light
Positively charged particle of an atom.
Force equals mass times ____________.



In essence, a script would take all the words in column A and spread
them vertically over rows instead.

Then the next row after that would have an aseterisk, as shown above.

And then all the explanations of the words/phrases in column B would
be listed vertically, also now in column A, underneath the asterisk.

I could do this manually but I have many rows to work with and it
would be quite time-consuming.

Thank you so much! :oD