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Introduction
Stars in their simpliest form are giant celestrial bodies of gas that generate light, heat and energy through nuclear reaction. They can be many thousands and million times as big as the Earth. The nearest star to
us is the Sun then the binary stars of Alpha and Proxima Centauri. They range in colour from red which is the coolest ( 3,500c ) to the very hot which is blue ( 45000c ). The stars are classified according
to their temperature and the table below will list the different classes, colour, temperature and a sample star. Their class is no indication as to the size because Betelgeuse and Rigel are comparative in size. The
difference is Betelgeuse is old whereas Rigel is relatively new.
| Class | Colour | Temperature (Kelvin) | Sample star |
| O | Blue | 33,000 or more | Zeta Ophiuchi |
| B | Bluish-White | 10,500–30,000 | Rigel |
| A | White | 7,500–10,000 | Altair |
| F | Yellowish White | 6,000–7,200 | Procyon A |
| G | Yellow | 5,500–6,000 | Sun |
| K | Orange | 4,000–5,250 | Aldebaran |
| M | Red | 2,600–3,850 | Betelgeuse |
The Birth ( Nebulas )
Stars are created when huge gas clouds begin to collapse and are pulled together by gravity. If during the process, the clouds are not strong enough, the process will fail and the star will become a brown dwarf.
Successful collapse clouds will form protostars, broken parts of the cloud. The protostars will continue to collapse until nuclear reactions begin. Parts of the cloud that did not form into the star may become
planets. The main ingredient of the star is Hydrogen which through nuclear reaction will turn into Helium and Plasma to be splurted out. The clouds start collapsing when an event has occurred, this could be caused
by the explosion of an old star, the gravitational pull of a nearby star or some other event. These clouds are also known as Nebulas. A example of a Nebula is the Cone Nebula. The actual cone is a small section of the nebula at the bottom.
There are a number of different Nebula's, the Cone is known as a Dark Nebula, this is where light from stars behind are blocked out. Emission Nebulas are where stars are inside the nebulas. A example of a Emission Nebula is the Orion Nebula.
The third type are nebulas that are lit up by nearby stars, they are called Reflection Nebulas. The M78. The Triffid Nebula is an example of a Emission/Reflection Nebula.
| Dark Nebula | Emission Nebula | Reflection Nebula |
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Living Stars ( Normal Star, Variable Stars, Binary Stars )
Throughout its life, a star could be normal like our Sun. A star that has a companion star is known as a Binary Star or Multiple Star. Binary refers to two whereas in space there are places where there are more
than two stars in the same region of space affecting one another. A well known Binary Star is Polaris.php A binary star can be Equal ( Both star orbit a central point of gravity ),
Unequal ( One star orbits another ) or Double Binary ( A pair of Equal or Unequal ) can be orbiting around a central point of gravity. The final type is a Variable Star whose brightness could be caused by
the internal physical changes. The brightness can change abruptly or in a pattern over a length of time.
Star Clusters ( Open Star Clusters, Globular Clusters )
Withn a galaxy, a number of stars could be grouped together whether it is a few tens of stars or millions of stars. They fall into two main types, Open Clusters which have no real shape compared to the
near spherical look of Globular Clusters. The two most famous star clusters are the Hyades and Pleiades, both found in Taurus. The Pleiades is below.
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Death ( White Dwarfs, Planetary Nebulas, Neutron Stars, Black Holes, Planets )
Like everything that begins, it must come to an end. When a star has finished processing its hydrogen, it dies. The Sun will do so one day but before then, the human race will have moved to another planet
or has become extinct. Its end point is determind by its mass. Low mass stars come white dwarfs and high mass black holes. It had been once said that a star exploded near the Sun, the remnants of the star
was captured by the Sun and became the planets we know today. The Sun is a medium mass panet which when it dies, it will grow bigger than it is today. The Sun will eventually explode and become a planetary
nebula. Planetary Nebulas are stars that have a white dwarf at the centre and a gaseous ring round the out side. Large Mass stars will either become black holes if they are above 3 Solar Masses or a Neutron Star
if they slightly less in weight. Neutron Star are stars consisting of Neutrons.
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