Table of Contents
What are three ways stars vary?
Main sequence stars can vary in size, mass and brightness, but they’re all doing the same thing: converting hydrogen into helium in their cores, releasing a tremendous amount of energy. A star in the main sequence is in a state of hydrostatic equilibrium.
Why do stars differ?
Differences in size are optical illusions, owing to saturation of the observing cameras. Even through a telescope, most stars appear as simple points of light due to their incredible distances from us. Their differences in color and brightness are easy to see, but size is a different matter entirely.
Why do stars sparkle?
As light from a star races through our atmosphere, it bounces and bumps through the different layers, bending the light before you see it. Since the hot and cold layers of air keep moving, the bending of the light changes too, which causes the star’s appearance to wobble or twinkle.
What color are the coolest stars?
Blue
What colors can stars be?
star color . The color of a star as a function of its radiation and related to its temperature; colors range from blue-white to deep red.
How do stars change color?
As the air moves in and out, the starlight is refracted, often different colors in different directions. Because of this “chromatic abberation,” stars can appear to change colors when they are twinkling strongly. Stars twinkle because of turbulence in the atmosphere of the Earth.
What is a red star in space?
The red supergiant star Betelgeuse is seen here in a new view from the Herschel Space Observatory. Betelgeuse is the star at the shoulder of Orion, the iconic constellation in the shape of a hunter wielding a bow in the night sky. Its name is derived from the Arabic for “hand of Orion.”