Stars

When you think of stars what do you normally think of? The little white dots up in the sky, right? Well after reading this you will have a better understanding of what stars really are.  You see the stars you draw on a piece of paper resemble nothing of the burning stars in space.  And as you look up at the sky at night you may also think that all stars are tiny little specks of white, again this is wrong.  Stars are of many different sizes and colors as you will read about.  Open your eyes and see the wonder of stars!

Stars and Navagation

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Throughout history stars have played a vital role in navagation and travel.  Many of you know the constellation the "Big Dipper," well many travelers have used it to find the North Star and get their bearings.  They used this star because it lays north in the sky and it is easy to spot because of how bright it is. 


Formation of Stars and Their Lives

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Stars are formed in clouds of dust that are found in most galaxies.  There are parts of a dust cloud that are more dense than others and this causes these parts to shine brighter than the rest of the cloud.  Because the cloud's gravity is so strong it can begin to collapse into itself.  A hot core forms as it collapses.  As the core is being formed some of the other dust collets around the star.  Not all the dust goes to the making of the star, it can go into the making of a planet, asteroids, comets, or it could just stay as dust.  If a larger star is created the shorter its life will be.  A short life for a star will generally be billions of years, so it is only in the comparison of larger to smaller stars that a life could be considered short.

Formations

This is a short video clip that shows many different formations of stars and black holes...

Stars to Physics

Stars are very much connected to physics because the making of stars involves a gravitational pull.  The creation of a star depends on its gravitational pull towards itself.  If it did not have this pull then the dust cloud could never collapse on itself in order to make the beginnings of a star.  The Sun is also a star and it is always moving.  The sun moves like all stars do even though it doesn't seem that way to us here on Earth.  The sun is rotating around the Milky Way Galaxy at 782,000km per hour (485912.272 miles per hour).  At this speed it will take 226 million years to completely orbit the galaxy.
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This shows the position of the sun in the Milky Way Galaxy
Stars are also connected to physics by their temperature.  Much like a candle or a gas stove the flame changes color, this is because of the hotness of the flame or star.  Its surface temperature decides its color.  Kelvin is the unit that scientists use when measuring heat.  Our Sun is 6,000 Kelvin and gives off a white color when looked at from space.  The cooler the star the more red it appears. The hotter the more blue.


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Noted Cites

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http://www.universetoday.com/18028/sun-orbit/
http://www.universetoday.com/24640/color-of-stars/
http://www.space.com/57-stars-formation-classification-and-constellations.html
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