Stars and
Constellations
Stars
Stars are cosmic energy generators that produce heat, light, and other
forms of radiation, such as ultraviolet rays, x-rays, and gamma rays.
They are mostly made up of gas and plasma, a superheated state of
matter. Stars are powered by nuclear fusion reaction, a form of nuclear
reaction by which the nuclei of smaller atoms fuse together to form a
heavier nucleus, with a huge release of energy.
Stars seem to appear as small specks of light in the sky only because
of their great distance from Earth. Most stars are actually larger than
Earth. The “twinkling” of a star is primarily due to the refraction or
bending of its emitted light as this light passes through the different
layers of Earth’s atmosphere.
The Sun is actually one of the countless stars in the universe. It is the
nearest star to Earth, with a distance of about 150 million km on the
average or 1 astronomical unit (AU). It is also the most significant
cosmic body to all beings. Like the Sun, some stars also have their own
set of planets.
Characteristics of Stars
There are innumerable stars in the universe. In our galaxy alone, the
Milky Way, scientist estimate that around 200 billion to 400 billion stars
exist. Only about 3000 stars are visible to the naked eye and even with
the help of astronomical instruments, only a small portion of the total
number of stars can be observed. Despite the huge number of stars in
the universe, every star is unique in one way or another.
Distance
The stars that you see in the night sky appear to be very small because they are very distant from you. Because of
this, the distances of stars are commonly expressed in light-years. A light year is the distance traveled by light in
1 year, which is approximately 9,460,528,400,000 km or 5,878,500,000,000 miles (mi). That is very long way from
Earth.
Aside from the Sun, the other stars nearest to the Earth are located in
the Alpha Centauri triple-star system, which is about 4.37 light-years
away. One of these stars, Proxima Centauri, is about 4.24 light-years
away from the Earth. Even with today’s current propulsion technology,
which is a method used to accelerate spacecraft and satellites, it would
still take thousands of years to reach Proxima Centauri.
Alpha Centauri
Proxima Centauri
Some stars are so far away that the light they emit take millions or
billions of years to reach Earth.
Nearest stars to Earth with their distances in light-years
Star Distance from Earth (light-years)
Sun 0.000 015 8
Proxima Centauri 2.242 1
Alpha Centauri 4.365 0
Barnard’s Star 5.963 0
Wolf 359 7.782 5
Lalande 21185 8.290 5
Sirius 8.582 8
Luyten 726-2 8.728 0
Ross 154 9.681 3
Ross 248 10.322
Stars come vary in forms. They also vary in terms of color, size,
temperature, and age. With so many stars in the universe, how do
astronomers classify them?
In 1910, Danish chemist and astronomer Einar Hertzsprung (1873-
1967) and American astronomer Henry Russell (1877-1957) studied
individually the relationship between the true brightness, commonly
termed as absolute magnitude, and the color and temperature of stars.
