Safekipedia
Concepts in astronomyLight sourcesStarsStellar astronomy

Star

Adapted from Wikipedia · Explorer experience

A stunning infrared view of the Milky Way's galactic center, revealing stars hidden behind dust, captured by the Spitzer Space Telescope.

Stars

Stars are bright, glowing balls of hot gas that shine in the night sky. The Sun is the closest star to Earth and gives us light and warmth. When you look up at night, you can see many tiny points of light. These are other stars, but they look small because they are very far away.

People have told stories about stars for thousands of years. They made patterns in the sky called constellations and used stars to tell time or find their way. Some stars have special names, like Sirius, which is one of the brightest stars you can see.

Stars are born from big clouds of gas and dust. These clouds come together because of gravity, and new stars are formed. Inside a star, tiny parts of atoms called hydrogen join together to make helium. This process makes a lot of energy, which is why stars shine so brightly.

Stars change over time. Small stars like the Sun will one day become small, cool stars called white dwarfs. Big stars can explode and leave behind special objects. Stars help make new elements and spread them into space, which helps create new stars, planets, and even life.

Images

A beautiful view of stars being born in the Large Magellanic Cloud, captured by the Hubble Space Telescope.
A detailed photograph of the Sun showing sunspots and other natural surface features, taken on May 8, 2019.
An educational illustration comparing the sizes of different stars, from tiny red dwarfs to massive blue supergiants, with our Sun shown in the middle.
Artist's view of the birth of a star named L1014, showing how new stars form in space.
A colorful view of the W40 star-forming region showing clouds of gas and dust where new stars are born.
A diagram showing how stars are organized based on their brightness and color, helping us understand their life cycles.
A stunning image of the giant star Betelgeuse, one of the largest stars known, captured by the ALMA telescope. It shines brightly in the constellation Orion!
An artist's view of the Sirius binary star system, showing the bright star Sirius A and its tiny companion Sirius B, with familiar constellations in the background.
A beautiful view of the star cluster NGC 6397 captured by the Hubble Space Telescope, showing many stars and special blue straggler stars.
A visual comparison showing how huge stars are compared to the orbits of planets like Saturn and Neptune.
An artistic drawing from the 1690s showing the Leo constellation, part of historical astronomy and mythology.

This article is a child-friendly adaptation of the Wikipedia article on Star, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Images from Wikimedia Commons. Tap any image to view credits and license.