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Sep 16, 2020 · These and planetary nebulae from low-mass stars are the sources of many of the elements we find on Earth. Their dust and gas will one day become a part of other stars, starting the whole process over again. That’s a very brief summary of the lives, times, and deaths of stars.
Learn about and revise the life cycle of stars, main sequence stars and supernovae with GCSE Bitesize Physics.
Stars are spread all across the canvas of the sky, but they appear denser in places. For example, there are clusters of stars, like the Pleiades, and the region of the sky where the band of the Milky Way appears is much more densely packed.
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- Get Out There!
You can gaze at the night sky for five or 10 minutes and nothing much will happen. But if you could speed the whole night up and watch the sky in fast motion, you'd see the stars moving across the sky as one. Stars rise in the east and set in the west, just like the Sun and Moon do. It's because the Earth spins from west to east, so everything in t...
The stars aren't the only things in the night sky — you can usually see a planet or two with the naked eye as well. The planets (including Earth) all orbit the Sun in roughly the same plane. And that means from Earth it looks like the Sun and all the planets follow an imaginary line across the sky called the ecliptic. That's great for sky watchers ...
As well as the daily spin of the planet, the Earth's annual orbit around the Sun means we see slightly different sections of the universe from one night to the next. It also means we'll be back where we started in a year's time, looking at the same stretch of sky. If you look at the sky from the same place after just six months — halfway through th...
There are 12 zodiac constellations — the ones we're all familiar with from astrology. Like the Sun and the planets, the zodiac constellations all lie in the ecliptic, so they're visible from every place on Earth where you can see the sun rise and set. This explains why they feature so prominently in ancient cultures. The zodiac constellations span ...
As well as the Earth's position in space, the area of sky we can see at night is determined by our latitude — how far north or south of the equator we are. Places at the same latitude see the same view of the night sky. So while Adelaide and the Chilean capital Santiago are separated by the Pacific Ocean, they see the same constellations at night b...
People in the Southern Hemisphere get an exclusive view of the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds — two of our neighbouring galaxies that can be identified with the naked eye. We also see some of the brightest globular clusters (spherical clumps of stars that orbit galaxies) such as 47 Tucanae in the constellation Tucana and Omega Centauri in the co...
So now that you have the know-how, all that's left to do is to wait for nightfall and set up yourself up in a comfortable position under the heavens — and make sure to keep your eyes open! We can't promise that the sky won't continue to be a mystery, but hey, that's half the fun!
How are stars born? How do stars die? Learn about exploding stars, variable stars, pulsars, the quiet life of the Sun, and more.
We can look up at a night sky and see the stars shining, but how do stars shine? Find out in our guide to the physics of starlight.
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Each of these observations—now happening at an accelerating pace due to technological developments—offer a tantalizing glimpse into a shared history that’s still being pieced together. Learning about the processes behind star and planet formation may unlock insight into more than just our own past.
