what makes a star is it the right hairdo
a funny Twitter account cool cloves
famous friends well if you're into
science like I am then the stars you
should care about aren't the ones in
movies or on TV they're the ones in
space but with so many shiny objects
floating around up there it can be hard
to tell what's a star and what's not so
let me introduce you to some real stars
a star is a bright object in space that
gives off light through energy that it
makes in its core no hmm something
really bright that gives off a lot of
light and it creates energy in its core
that sounds familiar and if it doesn't
it should I'm thinking of the Sun we
already learned that the Sun is a star
like the Sun all stars are giant balls
of gas located millions of kilometres
away from us obviously the Sun isn't the
only star in our universe it's just the
most famous one at least to us
astronomers think that there are
billions of stars out there but does
that mean all the sparkly things you see
when you look up at the night sky are
stars
nope there are all kinds of things in
space that glow or appear to glow just
like stars do but they're not actually
stars let's check out three kinds of
things in space that can sometimes get
mistaken for a star first up planets
planets are big round objects in space
that travel around a star you know or
really should know that you live on a
planet Earth there are seven other
planets in our solar system Mercury
Venus Mars Jupiter Saturn Uranus and
Neptune all of these planets travel
around the same star the Sun these eight
planets aren't the only planets in our
solar system though there are several
other planets up there too but because
of their smaller size scientists call
them dwarf planets dwarf planets are a
lot like regular planets they're
roundish and also travel in a path
around the Sun but unlike regular
planets dwarf planets are smaller and
they might be in for a bumpy ride while
regular planets have a clear path around
the Sun dwarf planets paths are full of
other stuff like asteroid or on those in
just a minute so
how can you tell planets and dwarf
planets apart from stars I mean it's
pretty easy to mix them all up from a
big distance but if you zoom in really
close planets and stars are pretty
different most planets appear brighter
to us than stars do this is because the
planets we see are closer to earth and
the stars are another big difference is
whether they appear to move in relation
to the other things in the sky around
them like I said the planets orbit or
follow a path around the Sun so imagine
that you observed a certain planet by
taking photos of it in the sky every
night for many months and then you
compared all of those photos you'd be
able to track the planets movement and
see that its position in the sky changed
in relation to the stuff around it stars
change their position in our night sky
too but they're located much further
away so it's harder to track their
movement plus when stars move because
they're also far away they appear to all
move together so if you're tracking one
star as it changes its position in the
night sky the stars around it move with
it another thing to look out for color
if an object in space has an intense
color it's most likely a planet not a
star so besides planets and dwarf
planets what's the third object in space
that could be mistaken for a star
asteroids asteroids are chunks of rock
and metal that also orbit around the Sun
most asteroids are found in the asteroid
belt an area between Mars and Jupiter
so what does an asteroid look like to a
passing spacecraft it just looks like a
giant rock but from a spot very far away
like Earth asteroids can look like tiny
spots of light so how do you tell the
difference between an asteroid and the
star sort of how you tell the difference
between a planet and a star like planets
asteroids are closer to Earth than stars
and are easier to track across the night
sky over time also stars tend to twinkle
when viewed from Earth or blink on and
off going from bright to faint planets
and asteroids generally don't twinkle
now let's take some of what we've just
learned and see if we can spot the real
stars among the imposters
hmm it's time to play star or not star
here's how it works
we look at an image of something in
space and I'll give you some clues
then you'll guess whether the object is
a star or not here we go
introducing object number one star or
not a star let's take a look at the
evidence your first clue is brightness
most stars aren't as bright as this
object meaning it's probably pretty
close to Earth now let's watch the
object for a couple of months just
kidding I'll just tell you that after
watching this object for a very long
time you'd be able to tell it's moving
through different parts of the sky night
after night while most of the stuff
around it doesn't seem to be moving at
the same rate so star or not a star if
you say that this is not a star then
Congrats you're a genius or you know
you've been paying attention the object
is one of our planet neighbors Venus
since it's a planet it's much closer to
Earth and the Stars and therefore
appears to be brighter and since it's a
planet it's moving around a star in this
case the Sun okay object number two star
or not a star this object isn't this
bright is it if you were to watch it for
a very long time it might appear to move
but it would still be surrounded by the
same stuff you saw around it when you
first started observing it it would also
twinkle or look like it was blinking
every so often so star or not a star
star yup this pretty thing is a star
called eNOS one of the brighter stars in
the night sky and part of the
constellation or group of stars called
Pegasus there's really no easy way to
tell from Earth if a shiny object is a
star or something else but if you're
willing to get out your telescope and be
super patient you can make an educated
guess by looking at the object's
brightness if it twinkles or not and if
it appears to move in relation to stuff
around it in the night sky
so to sum up a star is a bright object
in space but now you know that just
because something in the night sky is
shiny that doesn't automatically mean
it's a star real stars make their own
light unlike planets and asteroids which
just reflect light from other objects so
the real stars in the sky are the stars
I care most about they're all superstars
if you ask me
you