Who has not spent some night lying on the grass and looking up at the sky looking for those unique shapes that make up the stars through the constellations? Have you ever stopped to think more about them? Or have you never had a debate with someone who says that what is a star to you is actually a planet? Those conversations that arise when you ask yourself something more than what you just see. But what do you know about the stars? If you have more or less knowledge about them, in Green Ecologist we bring you in this article some curiosities about these stars, among others, What are the stars made of.
What is a star and what is it composed of
The stars are celestial bodies that are composed of gas, that is, they are large luminous spheres of gas which is kept in this form thanks to the force of its own gravity.
Stars have a large amount of energy that allows us to see them from many millions of kilometers away. This energy comes from nuclear reactions that occur inside, which generate this energy that is emitted into space as electromagnetic radiation, responsible for its luminosity.
The stars are sometimes grouped in the night sky giving rise to forms called constellations whose names have very varied origins (mythological characters, animals …). The utility of the constellations is to facilitate the memorization of the position of the stars.
What exactly are the stars made of?
Let's move on to what we really want to reveal to you in this article. You may have heard things in stories, fables, children's stories … But what are stars really made of? Which the composition of the stars?
Well, as we mentioned, the stars are large spheres of gas at elevated temperatures. Although not all stars have the same chemical composition, in general during their initial phases the gas from which they are formed is mostly a mixture of hydrogen (71%) and helium (27%). These elements are the lightest on the periodic table.
How do the stars work? Do youWhat gives light to the stars? When a star "shines" really what happens is that hydrogen burns and turns into helium through nuclear fusion processes that occur inside the core of the star.
However, there comes a time when the hydrogen is depleted. What happens then is that the star becomes a "red giant" and begins to consume helium as its outermost layers expand and cool, that is, the star is dying. Its evolution depends on the mass of the star. As helium is consumed, particles of heavier elements such as carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, silicon, sulfur (blue supergiants) are generated, sometimes as waste elements … up to iron and sometimes even uranium. These elements are the result of the most violent stages of activity in the evolution of the star.
If you are interested in this topic, you may want to learn more with this other article on What the stars are like.
How is a star different from a planet?
For when discussions arise about whether what you are seeing is a star or a planet, we are going to give you the main keys so that you can refute, or support, the idea that you are debating. There they go:
First of all, you can be guided by the brightness of the celestial body that you are observing. If the light is twinkling it's a star and if not, that is, if the light is fixed, it is a planet. This flickering is due to physical phenomena such as optical distortions that are produced by the power of the energy that it gives off together with the difference in density of our atmosphere with outer space.
Another thing that you can observe, similar to the previous one, is how bright the celestial body is. Planets are usually brighter than stars because they reflect sunlight. Stars, on the other hand, emit their own light and twinkle. It is also true that there are stars that can be much larger and have much brighter than our Sun, however, their distance from Earth is much greater.
If you have enough time, and we are talking about days, you can see if the body rises and sets. What do we mean? The celestial bodies move through the sky in different ways. The stars orbit in a circle-shaped pattern around the Pole Star, while the planets rise in the east and set in the west, following a similar path to the Moon and the Sun. The planets appear to travel in a straight line along the sky.
Another important piece of information is the color of the celestial body. If you appreciate a certain color it will be a planet, although not all have it. This color can vary from a bluish white to a more yellowish white. For example, Mars is observed in a reddish tone, Mercury in a brownish color, Jupiter acquires a more orange tone or Uranus, whose hue turns bluish.
Finally, you can try to recognize a "belt", called the ecliptic, on which the planets are located. This ecliptic refers to the position the planets take, as it is not something physically visible, although it can help you try to place the planets in the same strip. The stars can also appear in this strip, it will be then when you have to use some of the other tricks to differentiate them from the planets.
Find out more in this other article about the Difference between planet, star and natural satellite.
If you want to read more articles similar to What are the stars made of, we recommend that you enter our category of Curiosities of the Earth and the universe.
