  We discuss in detail the distributions of energy, radial pressure and
tangential pressure inside the nucleon. In particular, this discussion is
carried on in both the instant form and the front form of dynamics. Moreover we
show for the first time how these mechanical concepts can be defined when the
average nucleon momentum does not vanish. We express the conditions of
hydrostatic equilibrium and stability in terms of these two and
three-dimensional energy and pressure distributions. We briefly discuss the
phenomenological relevance of our findings with a simple yet realistic model.
In the light of this exhaustive mechanical description of the nucleon, we also
present several possible connections between hadronic physics and compact
stars, like e.g. the study of the equation of state for matter under extreme
conditions and stability constraints.
