Stars

When you go outside at night and see the sky filled with bright, twinkling stars, have you ever wondered why stars shine in the first place? Incredibly, the light you’re seeing has traveled through space for years until finally reaching your eyes. However, not everyone is fortunate enough to go outside and this view these … Read more

A star chart, also known as a star map, is a tool used to map the night sky. For thousands of years, people have studied the stars, dividing the night sky into grids. These grids allow people to identify and locate stars, constellations, galaxies and more. By turning the night sky into a readable map, … Read more

Have you ever asked yourself “What is a star?” or “What are stars made of”? Most people know what a star is, but few can tell you of the top of their head what a star is actually made of. Although it is a common misconception that stars are “giant balls of gas”, they’re anything … Read more

Stars form inside dense concentrations of interstellar gas and dust called molecular clouds. These clouds contain cool gas and dust (primarily molecular hydrogen) left over from the formation of galaxies. These molecular clouds want to dissipate, much like smoke, however, gravity keeps the cloud pulled together. Gravity continues to pull this gas and dust inward … Read more

Betelgeuse is a red supergiant star located 640.5 light years from Earth, in the constellation Orion. The star is located in the upper-left corner of Orion the Hunter, forming his shoulder. It is one of the largest stars visible to the naked eye. Ancient people took note of the spectacular star, and astronomers today continue … Read more

Sirius is the brightest star that can be seen with a visual magnitude -1.46. It is also known as the dog star and even sometimes called the alpha canis majoris.  Sirius is a bluish white star. The light distant is 20 times the energy of the sun. the star is most commonly seen in the … Read more

The hunter constellation Orion heralds the changing of seasons across the globe. As it rises, so does one of the brightest stars in the sky: Rigel. The blue-white gem is in stark contrast to Orion’s other famous star, the red-orange Betelgeuse. At magnitude 0.12, Rigel is the brightest star in Orion, but Betelgeuse sometimes does … Read more

VY Canis Majoris (VY CMa) stands out as one of the most extreme stars in the Milky Way. VY CMa is found in the constellation Canis Major and lies some 3,900 to 4,900 light-years away from the Solar System (1.2 to 1.5 kiloparsecs). It is a massive and oxygen-rich star, but whether it is a … Read more