if you're like us here before you'll probably enjoy stargazing the night sky
is full of cool things to look at and I bet a lot of you have been looking up
there and wondering about the same things that we do we've got some really
interesting questions from kids like you about what you see up there.
Eight-year-old Alice from New Zealand has been doing some sky watching and she
recently emailed to ask us, "What are stars and how do they work?"
let me just say that's a stellar question. If you look up at the night sky,
all the stars that you see might look pretty similar, but don't let your eyes
fool you. All of those stars have some important things in common but they're
also all different. They can be different colors like white yellow red and blue
They can also be different sizes from about the size of a planet to something
many many times bigger than the Sun. But before we meet some of the extreme stars
let's figure something out first.
What exactly is a star? Stars are just really huge balls of hot gas in space and deep in
their centers all-stars are constantly generating an enormous amount of energy.
This energy eventually travels out from the center of a Star, where it's given off as heat and light
That's what gives stars their glow so keeping in mind that all-star
and giant balls and gas that come in all kinds of sizes and colors want to meet
them for yourself?
Let's start with the most important star, at least for us here on earth- The
Sun. That's right the Sun is a star and it's a specific kind of star called a
yellow dwarf. While we think of our sun as being super huge and incredibly hot which
it definitely is compared to Earth, it's actually pretty average compared to
other stars-- meaning it's right in the middle. Between the biggest and the
smallest and the hottest and the coolest stars. So there are some stars that are
much bigger than the Sun and way hotter. If you want to find one just look for the
constellation known as Orion.
It's one of the easiest constellations to spot. If you look down to the right of
the star where a Orion's knee is supposed to be you'll find Rigel. Rigel
is a good example of a kind of star called a blue supergiant. As you can guess
from it's name, it's blue instead of yellow and its enormous. Rigel is more than twice as
hot as the Sun and it's also more than seventy times bigger. If you could put
the Sun next to Rigel, our big old sun would look like a
tiny speck. In addition to all of the huge hot stars in the sky, there are
plenty of smaller cooler ones too. The smallest and coolest stars in space
tend to glow with a dim red color and the Sun is more than twice as hot as
most of them. A good example of this kind of star is right next door- at least in
terms of space. Proxima Centauri is the nearest star to our Sun and it's a kind
called a red dwarf. It's in the constellation Centaurus in the southern
sky but even though it's closer to the Sun than any other star it's so small
that you can't even see it from earth without a telescope. How small it well
you could fit seven Proxima Centauri inside the Sun from end to end. So while
you're star gazing on the next clear night, keep in mind that the stars might look pretty
much the same but now you know they come in different colors and sizes a lot like
we do. Thanks to Alice for asking such a great question and thanks to you for taking
this trip with us to the stars. And remember if you have a question about
anything you would like to learn more about, just let us know by getting help from
a parent and leaving a comment below or emailing us at kid@thescishow.com
We'll see you next time.