6/26/2014
Tidbits On Stars and Galaxies
When you look up at the sky in the
night, you'll sometimes see stars. But one of the odd facts about this is, is
that you never see the same star twice in a row in the same place on two
different nights. Why? This is because the Earth is continually spinning and
moving, making it look like each star like its moving, when really we are the
one's moving. But, there are always groups of stars that are most likely found
in of the Earth's hemispheres. In the Northern hemisphere, you can most likely
always find the constellation Ursa Major and Ursa Minor. In the constellation
Ursa Minor, is the famous Polaris, or the North Star. Continuing on stars,
there are many kinds. One of the most spectacular ones is the kind that the
star Sirius is. Sirius is a binary star, which means that it has another star
orbiting around it. It's kind of like when a planet is orbiting around a bigger
star, yet this is more on a smaller scale. 
When a star does finally
die, it can sometimes create a black hole.
A black hole is when a star implodes on itself. The core of the star
implodes, forcing other stars out into the sky. But, the core stays behind,
pulling on everything in sight. A black hole's gravitational pull is so strong,
that it can overpower even the strongest of stars or planets. A supernova, is
when a star explodes (not implodes) on itself. When this happens, it reaches
far out into space, leaving residues that make that part of the sky colorful.
The Crab Nebulae is one of these supernovas, and can be seen through a
telescope. All three of the types of stars listed above, are variable stars.
All of these variable stars can sometimes form what we call galaxies. Galaxies
are stars formed in huge groups. We are in the Milky Way galaxy. The Milky Way galaxy is one of the three types of galaxies: elliptical, spiral, and irregular. We are in a spiral galaxy. It's humbling to think that all of the stars that we see up in the night sky make up a whole ENTIRE galaxy. All of the constellations, star groups, types of stars, and the death of stars, all make up the place we live in. These constellations and such are not only used for science of course, but they can be used to tell stories of the past. Though people use them for horoscopes in astrology (different from astronomy), even the stars can tell you a story which is not your own, and more fascinating. Every star has its own story, and when those stories collide with one another, it makes a bigger story, which turns into the story that God had always planned for us and for others…
The story of
the universe.
Some interesting links I encourage you to investigate:
Check out the sites the images came from as well:
The first image taken from this cool site: http://hubpages.com/hub/AstronomyBeginnersGuideStars-Greensleeves
The second image taken from:
http://www.herongyang.com/astrology_horoscope/Polaris_The_North_Pole_Star.html
The third image taken from:
http://astrobob.areavoices.com/2011/12/18/the-sun-is-absolutely-not-the-brightest-star/
The fourth image taken from this nerdy site: http://burro.astr.cwru.edu/stu/advanced/stars_binvar.html
The fifth image taken from a site with enough information to
give me a headache: http://scienceblogs.com/startswithabang/2012/05/10/why-youll-never-escape-from-a/
The sixth image taken from:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southern_Crab_Nebula
The seventh image taken from: http://www.universetoday.com/21563/milky-way/
The initial image taken from: http://science.nationalgeographic.com/science/space/universe/stars-article/
