7 Facts about the stars

7 Facts about the stars

The universe is a fascinating and wondrous place. Loaded with unknown phenomena and mysterious things that keep us wondering. Something that has confused the inhabitants of the earth for many years are the twinkling lights that appear in the sky each night. Little sparks of light twinkling in the dark night sky.

Stars have been around for a long time! A very long time. But what do we actually know about them? Below are listed 7 facts we actually do know about stars.

1. Stars are massive

And when I say massive, I mean massive! The largest known star is Canis Majoris which is 2000 times bigger than our sun and our sun is big with a diameter of 864,938 miles. But it is the sheer mass of the stars that make them impressive. When we consider the mass of some of the biggest stars we know of we usually count them as multiples of our sun, For example, Carinae A is 120 times the mass of our sun but it is nowhere near the biggest we know of.

2. Stars are held together by gravity

It is their gravity alone that holds them together, the mass of the hydrogen that makes up the stars and the gravity created by this mass is what holds them together. The glue that holds the universe together is also holding the stars together. Without gravity bits of the stars would be flung all over the place and fusion would never happen.

3. Stars provide all the energy for life on earth

Everything on the planet is here because of the stars. Every chemical on the planet was created in a star. Every living thing on the planet relies on the stars for energy. All the energy for the plants and animals on earth comes from our nearest star. Without the sun there would be no life on earth.

4. The stars are out in the daytime as well

The stars come out at night but they are also there in the daytime. The difference is that our sun and the earth's atmosphere drowns out the light from the stars. If you sit at the bottom of a very deep, dark hole you can see the stars in the daytime. A deep well maybe.

5. The Milky Way has over 400 billion stars

Nobody knows exactly how many for sure but there are at least 400 billion in the Milky way alone. To quantify how many there are in the entire universe is extremely difficult but it is a ridiculous number! Another amazing fact is that each star is different, there are billions of them but they are all different and to be a perfect star like our sun the star needs to be in perfect balance.

6. People have used the stars to navigate for hundreds of years

The positions of the stars are so reliable that humans have used them for hundreds of years as a reference point for navigation. Not only humans use the stars, the animal kingdom also uses them. Insects and birds use the positions of the stars to find their way around the planet.

7. Nuclear fusion drives a star

Stars are formed when clouds of hydrogen in space collapse in on themselves under the force of gravity. The ball of matter collapses and collapses under its own gravity until there is enough pressure to cause the nuclear fusion. Once fusion is achieved a chain reaction occurs that gradually burns up all the fuel. Fusion creates massive amounts of energy that is released in the form of heat and light and various other forms of deadly radiation.

Bonus Fact

Our sun, the closest star to the earth, consumes 600 million tonnes of hydrogen per second and provides ALL the energy for life on earth.

Buy A Star

Nowadays there are many gifts you could buy a loved one, but buying a star really is a special gift that your loved one will remember, cherish and forever be looking up at the sky to see what they now own. You can head over to our buy a star page and name a star after your loved one, they will be able to look up to the sky and see their star, a truly magnificent gift.