Wheatfield Primary School

This picture of a group of dazzling stars sitting majesticly in the jet back sky.  :)

All that glitters

Some stars shine more brightly than others. Their brightness is a factor of how much energy they put out–known as luminosity–and how far away from Earth they are. Color can also vary from star to star because their temperatures are not all the same. Hot stars appear white or blue, whereas cooler stars appear to have orange or red hues!!! :0

By plotting these and other variables on a graph called the Hertzsprung-Russell diagram, astronomers can classify stars into groups. Along with main sequence and white dwarf stars, other groups include dwarfs, giants, and supergiants. Supergiants may have radii a thousand times larger than that of our own sun!!! :0

Stars spend 90 percent of their lives in their main sequence phase. Now around 4.6 billion years old, Earth’s sun is considered an average-size yellow dwarf star, and astronomers predict it will remain in its main sequence stage for several billion more years !!! :0

As stars move toward the ends of their lives, much of their hydrogen has been converted to helium. Helium sinks to the star's core and raises the star's temperature—causing its outer shell of hot gases to expand. These large, swelling stars are known as red giants. But there are different ways a star’s life can end, and its fate depends on how massive the star is!!! :0

The red giant phase is actually a prelude to a star shedding its outer layers and becoming a small, dense body called a white dwarf. White dwarfs cool for billions of years. Some, if they exist as part of a binary star system , may gather excess matter from their companion stars until their surfaces explode, triggering a bright nova. Eventually all white dwarfs go dark and cease producing energy. At this point, which scientists have yet to observe, they become known as black dwarfs!!! :0

This picture of the boiling hot sun relaxing in the empty aptmosphere. Did you know that the sun is not the biggest star!!! Question for you to answer: How many stars are there in our solar system?...

Trick question there is only one. :o                                                                                                                                                                                                  

A constellation is an area on the celestial sphere in which a group of visible stars forms a perceived outline or pattern, typically representing an animal, mythological subject, or inanimate object. The origins of the earliest constellations likely go back to prehistory!!! :)

Stars are huge celestial bodies made mostly of hydrogen and helium that produce light and heat from the churning nuclear forges inside their cores. Aside from our sun, the dots of light we see in the sky are all light-years from Earth. They are the building blocks of galaxies, of which there are billions in the universe. It’s impossible to know how many stars exist, but astronomers estimate that in our Milky Way galaxy alone, there are about 300 billion!!! :0                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           

Ever since the discovery of Pluto in 1930, kids grew up learning that the solar system has nine planets. That all changed in the late 1990s when astronomers started arguing about whether Pluto was indeed a planet. In a highly controversial decision, the International Astronomical Union ultimately decided in 2006 to designate Pluto as a "dwarf planet," reducing the list of the solar system's true planets to just eight!!! :0

If you insist on including Pluto, it would come after Neptune on the list. Pluto is truly way out there and on a wildly tilted, elliptical orbit (two of the several reasons it was demoted)!!! :0

Astronomers, however, are still hunting for another possible planet in our solar system, a true ninth planet, after mathematical evidence of its existence was revealed on Jan. 20, 2016. The alleged "Planet Nine," also called "Planet X," is believed to be about 10 times the mass of Earth and 5,000 times the mass of Pluto!!! :0

TYPES OF PLANETS IN THE SOLAR SYSTEM

The inner four planets closest to the sun — Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars — are often called the "terrestrial planets" because their surfaces are rocky. Pluto also has a rocky, albeit frozen, surface but has never been grouped with the four terrestrials!!! :0

The four large outer worlds — Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune — are sometimes called the Jovian or "Jupiter-like" planets because of their enormous size relative to the terrestrial planets. They're also mostly made of gases like hydrogen, helium and ammonia rather than of rocky surfaces, although astronomers believe some or all of them may have solid cores!!! :0

Jupiter and Saturn are sometimes called the gas giants, whereas the more distant Uranus and Neptune have been nicknamed the ice giants. This is because Uranus and Neptune have more atmospheric water and other ice-forming molecules, such as methane, hydrogen sulfide and phosphene, that crystallize into clouds in the planets' frigid conditions, according to Planetary Society. For perspective, methane crystallizes at minus 296 Fahrenheit (minus 183 degrees Celsius),according to the U.S. National Library of Medicine!!! :0