Space star universe. The biggest stars in the universe

Goals and objectives:

To introduce children to the main planets, to give an initial idea of ​​\u200b\u200bthe structure of the solar system and the planets;

Develop children's vocabulary; introduce the names of the planets: Mercury, Mars, Venus, Jupiter, Neptune, Pluto;

Awaken interest in the knowledge of the world around us, develop curiosity; activate children's vocabulary, cultivate love for their planet.

Material: picture on the carpet with the image of the starry sky and planets (design of the developing space), presentation "Space" and equipment for demonstration, pictures of the Sun, Moon, night starry sky, constellation Ursa Major (for guessing riddles), details of geometric shapes for construction.

The course of educational activities

The game "Who knows, he answers"

The teacher brings the children to the picture on the carpet with the image of the planets and asks the children. What is the name of the planet on which we live, and also offers to go on a journey into space and get acquainted with the names of other planets.

Children are seated in front of the screen.

Conversation "Space. Universe"

The teacher continues the story: all the planets of the solar system are 8 huge spherical bodies. Some of them are larger than our land, others are smaller. (slide show). Planets can be seen in the sky because they are illuminated by the Sun. Sunlight reflects off the planets, and so the planets can be seen from Earth. They are especially visible at night, when they glow like bright stars.

The teacher introduces children to the names of other planets: Mercury, Mars, Venus, Jupiter, Saturn. (slide show).

The mysterious world of planets has attracted the attention of people since ancient times, and people began to explore outer space. The first Vostok spacecraft. On April 12, 1961, for the first time in the world, Soviet man Yuri Alekseevich Gagarin flew around the globe.

Since then, a lot of time has passed and much has been done in the field of space exploration. Spacecraft explore the Moon and other planets of the solar system. Even animals have been in space and become the heroes of the animated film.

Game-task "Journey on a rocket."

Game - task "Journey on a rocket"

Host: Get ready for the rocket launch!

Children: Get ready!

Host: Fasten your seat belts!

Children: There are seat belts! (Imitate movement.)

Host: Connect contacts!

Children: There are contacts! (Clap your hands 1 time.)

Host: Start the engines!

Children: There are motors to start! (Imitate movement.)

Host: Are you ready to start?

Children: Ready! (They stand in place.)

Host: Five, four, three, two, one...

Children: Start! (Clap hands, sit down.)

Host: We're taking off. The rocket takes us far - far from the Earth! We took an envelope with riddles with us. If we guess them, we'll know where we're going.

The host takes out a riddle from the envelope:

blue handkerchief,

scarlet bun,

Riding on a scarf

Smiling at people.

(Sky and sun.)

Physical education minute

Someone in the morning slowly

(Walking in place.)

Inflates a yellow balloon

(Children blow and spread their arms to the sides.)

And how to get out of hand -

(Raise hands up, clap.)

It will suddenly become light around.

(Turn.)

What is this ball?

(Children in chorus: "The sun")

The bird flapped its wings

And covered the whole world with one feather.

The grain scattered at night,

Looked in the morning - there is nothing.

In the blue station

Round girl.

She can't sleep at night

Looks in the mirror.

Alone in the sky at night

Golden orange.

Two weeks have passed

We didn't eat orange

But left in the sky only

Orange slice.

(Moon, Month.)

From which bucket

Do not drink, do not eat?

Do they just look at him?

(Constellation Ursa Major.)

How many stars are in the constellation? (Seven.)

What shape do these stars form? (Ladle.)

Leading: Well done guys, all the tasks were completed. I propose to go back to earth.

Host: Prepare for landing!

Children: Get ready! (Children get up.)

Host: Turn off your engines!

Children: There are turn off the engines!

Host: Disconnect contacts!

Children: There are sever contacts! (Clap hands.)

Host: Unfasten your belts!

Children: There are unfasten the belts! (Imitate movement.)

Leader and children together: Five, four, three, two, one! (Children clap their hands.)

Host: The flight is over!

Children sit down.

Host: During the trip, we got acquainted with the starry sky, the Moon and the Sun.

The round dance of the planets is spinning.

Each has its own size and color.

For each path is defined,

But only on earth is the world inhabited by life.

Educator. So we found ourselves on our native planet Earth. Let's remember, guys, what kind of aircraft help people explore outer space.

Creative work of children.

Children from geometric shapes design a spaceship.

10

10th place - AH Scorpio

The tenth line of the largest stars in our Universe is occupied by a red supergiant, located in the constellation Scorpio. The equatorial radius of this star is 1287 - 1535 radius of our sun. It is located approximately 12,000 light years from Earth.

9

9th place - KY Lebedya

The ninth place is occupied by a star located in the constellation Cygnus at a distance of about 5 thousand light years from Earth. The equatorial radius of this star is 1420 solar radii. However, its mass exceeds the mass of the Sun by only 25 times. Shines KY Cygnus about a million times brighter than the Sun.

8

8th place - VV Cepheus A

VV Cephei is an eclipsing Algol-type binary star in the constellation Cepheus, about 5,000 light-years from Earth. It is the second largest star in the Milky Way Galaxy (after VY Canis Major). The equatorial radius of this star is 1050 - 1900 solar radii.

7

7th place - VY Big Dog

The largest star in our galaxy. The radius of the star lies in the range 1300 - 1540 radii of the sun. It would take light 8 hours to go around a star in a circle. Studies have shown that the star is unstable. Astronomers predict that VY Canis Major will explode as a hypernova in the next 100,000 years. Theoretically, a hypernova explosion will cause gamma-ray bursts that could damage the contents of the local part of the universe, destroying any cellular life within a radius of several light years, however, the hypergiant is not located close enough to Earth to pose a threat (approximately 4 thousand light years).

6

6th place - VX Sagittarius

Giant pulsating variable star. Its volume, as well as the temperature, change periodically. According to astronomers, the equatorial radius of this star is 1520 radii of the sun. The star got its name from the name of the constellation in which it is located. The manifestations of a star due to its pulsation resemble the biorhythms of the human heart.

5

5th place - Westerland 1-26

The fifth line is occupied by a red supergiant, the radius of this star lies in the range 1520 - 1540 solar radii. It is located 11,500 light years from Earth. If Westerland 1-26 were at the center of the solar system, its photosphere would encompass the orbit of Jupiter. For example, the typical length of the photosphere in depth for the Sun is 300 km.

4

4th place - WOH G64

WOH G64 is a red supergiant located in the constellation Dorado. Located in the neighboring galaxy Large Magellanic Cloud. The distance to the solar system is approximately 163,000 light years. The radius of the star lies in the range 1540 - 1730 solar radii. The star will end its existence and become a supernova in a few thousand or tens of thousands of years.

3

3rd place - RW Cepheus

Bronze goes to RW Cephei. The red supergiant is located at a distance of 2739 light years from us. The equatorial radius of this star is 1636 solar radii.

2

2nd place - NML Lebedya

The second line of the largest stars in the Universe is occupied by a red hypergiant in the constellation Cygnus. The radius of the star is about 1650 solar radii. The distance to it is estimated at about 5300 light years. As part of the star, astronomers discovered substances such as water, carbon monoxide, hydrogen sulfide, sulfur oxide.

1

1st place - UY Shield

The largest star in our Universe at the moment is a hypergiant in the constellation Scutum. It is located at a distance of 9500 light years from the Sun. The equatorial radius of the star is 1708 radius of our sun. The luminosity of the star is approximately 120,000 times greater than the luminosity of the Sun in the visible part of the spectrum, the brightness would be much higher if there were not a large accumulation of gas and dust around the star.

Look up into the night sky and you'll see some of the planets in our solar system, as well as thousands of stars, of which there are a billion million in the universe... and more!

Universe consists of many galaxies, in which there are myriads of various stars and objects of the universe - these are galaxies and constellations, nebulae and star clusters, various stars and their planetary systems. Among them, in the Milky Way galaxy, there is a planet, perhaps the only one on which there is intelligent life.

This is our home - planet Earth.

The house in which we live is the planet Earth. Our planet revolves around the sun and enters the solar system along with other planets. There are nine planets in the solar system, many of which have their own moons and rings. Comets, asteroids and even entire clusters of them can be found in our solar system. Each object of the solar system is interesting and unique in its own way, and only one of them, on our planet Earth, has life.
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Constellations of the starry sky

Thousands of years ago, astronomers, observing the movement of stars in the sky and drawing outlines between them, endowed them with the names of constellations associated with myths and legends. And now, like thousands of years ago, every season makes it possible to see the familiar constellations and stars of the night sky. During the entire annual cycle, the stars change their positions relative to us, and only the polar star has remained for a good one and a half millennia, an almost motionless beacon of the Earth's north pole.
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Stars and galaxies

Our galaxy, which includes the solar system, is called the Milky Way and it is huge in size (1 quintillion kilometers and hundreds of thousands of light years), but there are other nearest, by the standards of the universe, and distant galaxies. As well as in our galaxy, they contain a variety of stars, nebulae, open and globular clusters of stars, black holes, white and red dwarfs, as well as many, many other mysterious objects of the universe.
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Man and space

Since ancient times, man has sought to know the secret of the starry sky. He invented a telescope, launched a satellite, then man himself went into outer space, learned to calculate distances and masses, find the most distant stars hundreds of thousands of light years in the farthest corners of the universe, but many of the space objects already discovered by man still remain a mystery and the secret of the deepest bowels of the universe.
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Our galaxy in which we live is called the Milky Way. It contains the solar system, consisting of the Sun and nine planets revolving around it. The third planet from the Sun is our planet Earth. And from this planet we began our discovery of a huge incomprehensible universe.

Many of the most distant objects in the universe are already known to science, and many, and perhaps even more, remain a mystery. While the universe is constantly expanding, many of its wonders have to be uncovered endlessly.

> Stars

Stars- massive gas balls: history of observations, names in the universe, classification with photos, birth of a star, development, double stars, list of the brightest.

Stars- celestial bodies and giant luminous spheres of plasma. There are billions of them in our Milky Way galaxy alone, including the Sun. Not so long ago, we learned that some of them also have planets.

History of stellar observations

Now you can easily buy a telescope and observe the night sky or use telescopes online on our website. Since ancient times, the stars in the sky have played an important role in many cultures. They were noted not only in myths and religious stories, but also served as the first navigational tools. That is why astronomy is considered one of the oldest sciences. The advent of telescopes and the discovery of the laws of motion and gravity in the 17th century helped to understand that all stars resemble ours, which means they obey the same physical laws.

The invention of photography and spectroscopy in the 19th century (the study of the wavelengths of light emanating from objects) made it possible to penetrate into the stellar composition and principles of motion (the creation of astrophysics). The first radio telescope appeared in 1937. With its help, it was possible to find invisible stellar radiation. And in 1990, the first Hubble Space Telescope was launched, capable of obtaining the deepest and most detailed view of the Universe (high-quality Hubble photos of various celestial bodies can be found on our website).

The name of the stars of the universe

Ancient people did not have our technical advantages, so they recognized the images of various creatures in celestial objects. These were the constellations about which myths were composed in order to remember the names. Moreover, almost all of these names have been preserved and are used today.

In the modern world, there are (among them 12 belong to the zodiac). The brightest star is labeled alpha, the second brightest is beta, and the third is gamma. And so it goes until the end of the Greek alphabet. There are stars that represent parts of the body. For example, the brightest star of Orion (Alpha Orion) is "the arm (armpit) of a giant."

Do not forget that all this time a lot of catalogs were compiled, whose designations are still used. For example, the Henry Draper Catalog offers a spectral classification and positions for 272,150 stars. The Betelgeuse designation is HD 39801.

But there are an incredibly large number of stars in the sky, so for new ones they use abbreviations denoting a stellar type or catalog. For example, PSR J1302-6350 is a pulsar (PSR), J is using the "J2000" coordinate system, and the last two groups of digits are coordinates with latitude and longitude codes.

Are the stars all the same? Well, when viewed without the use of technology, they are only slightly different in brightness. But these are just huge balls of gas, right? Not really. In fact, stars have a classification based on their main characteristics.

Among the representatives you can meet blue giants and tiny brown dwarfs. Sometimes there are bizarre stars, like neutron ones. Diving into the Universe is impossible without understanding these things, so let's get to know the stellar types better.

Most of the stars in the universe are in the main sequence. You can remember the Sun, Alpha Centauri A and Sirus. They can radically differ in scale, massiveness and brightness, but they perform one process: they transform hydrogen into helium. This produces a huge energy surge. Such a star experiences a sensation of hydrostatic balance. Gravity causes an object to shrink, but nuclear fusion pushes it out. These forces work in balance, and the star manages to maintain the shape of a sphere. The size depends on the massiveness. The line is 80 Jupiter masses. This is the minimum mark at which it is possible to activate the melting process. But in theory, the maximum mass is 100 solar.

If there is no fuel, then the star no longer has enough mass to continue nuclear fusion. She turns into a white dwarf. External pressure does not work, and it shrinks in size due to gravity. The dwarf continues to shine because there are still hot temperatures. When it cools down, it will reach the background temperature. It will take hundreds of billions of years, so it is simply impossible to find a single representative yet. Planetary systems of white dwarfs Astrophysicist Roman Rafikov on disks around white dwarfs, Saturn's rings and the future of the solar system compact stars Astrophysicist Alexander Potekhin on white dwarfs, the density paradox and neutron stars:

Cepheids are stars that have evolved from the main sequence to the Cepheid instability strip. These are ordinary radio-pulsating stars with a noticeable relationship between periodicity and luminosity. Scientists value them for this, because they are excellent assistants in determining distances in space. They also show radial velocity variations corresponding to the photometric curves. The brighter ones have a long periodicity. Classical representatives are supergiants, whose mass is 2-3 times greater than the solar one. They are in the moment of burning fuel at the stage of the main sequence and transform into red giants, crossing the Cepheid instability line.

To be more precise, the concept of "double star" does not reflect the real picture. In fact, we have a star system in front of us, represented by two stars making revolutions around a common center of mass. Many people make the mistake of mistaking two objects for a double star that appear to be close to each other when viewed with the naked eye. Scientists benefit from these objects because they help calculate the mass of individual participants. When they move in a common orbit, Newton's calculations for gravity allow mass to be calculated with incredible accuracy. Several categories can be distinguished according to visual properties: eclipsing, visual binary, spectroscopic binary, and astrometric. Occulting - stars whose orbits create a horizontal line from the point of observation. That is, a person sees a double eclipse on the same plane (Algol). Visual - two stars that can be resolved with a telescope. If one of them shines very brightly, it can be difficult to separate the other.

star formation

Let's take a closer look at the process of star birth. First we see a giant slowly rotating cloud filled with hydrogen and helium. Internal gravity causes it to curl inwards, causing it to spin faster. The outer parts are transformed into a disk, and the inner parts into a spherical cluster. The material breaks down, becoming hotter and denser. Soon a spherical proto-star appears. When the heat and pressure rise to 1 million °C, the atomic nuclei fuse and a new star ignites. Nuclear fusion converts a small amount of atomic mass into energy (1 gram of mass converted into energy is equivalent to the explosion of 22,000 tons of TNT). See also the explanation on the video to better understand the issue of stellar origin and development.

Evolution of protostellar clouds

Astronomer Dmitry Wiebe on actualism, molecular clouds and star birth:

The birth of the stars

Astronomer Dmitry Wiebe on protostars, the discovery of spectroscopy and the gravoturbulent model of star formation:

Flares on young stars

Astronomer Dmitry Wiebe on supernovae, types of young stars and a flash in the constellation Orion:

Star evolution

Based on the mass of a star, one can determine its entire evolutionary path, since it goes through certain template stages. There are stars of intermediate mass (like the Sun) 1.5-8 times the solar mass, more than 8, and also up to half the solar mass. Interestingly, the greater the mass of a star, the shorter its lifespan. If it reaches less than a tenth of the sun, then such objects fall into the category of brown dwarfs (they cannot ignite nuclear fusion).

An intermediate-mass object begins life as a cloud 100,000 light-years across. To collapse into a protostar, the temperature must be 3725°C. From the moment the hydrogen fusion begins, T Tauri can form - a variable with fluctuations in brightness. The subsequent process of destruction will take 10 million years. Further, its expansion will be balanced by the compression of gravity, and it will appear as a main sequence star, receiving energy from hydrogen fusion in the core. The bottom figure shows all the stages and transformations in the evolution of stars.

When all the hydrogen is melted into helium, gravity will crush the matter into the core, which will start a rapid process of heating. The outer layers expand and cool, and the star becomes a red giant. Next, helium begins to fuse. When it also dries up, the core contracts and becomes hotter, expanding the shell. At maximum temperature, the outer layers are blown away, leaving a white dwarf (carbon and oxygen) whose temperature reaches 100,000 °C. There is no more fuel, so there is a gradual cooling. Billions of years later, they end their lives as black dwarfs.

The processes of formation and death in a star with a high mass occur incredibly quickly. It only takes 10,000-100,000 years for it to pass from a protostar. During the main sequence period, these are hot and blue objects (from 1000 to a million times brighter than the Sun and 10 times wider). Next, we see a red supergiant begin to fuse carbon into heavier elements (10,000 years). The result is an iron core with a width of 6000 km, whose nuclear radiation can no longer resist the force of gravity.

As a star approaches 1.4 solar masses, the electron pressure can no longer keep the core from collapsing. Because of this, a supernova is formed. Upon destruction, the temperature rises to 10 billion °C, breaking the iron into neutrons and neutrinos. In just a second, the core shrinks to a width of 10 km and then explodes in a Type II supernova.

If the remaining core reached less than 3 solar masses, then it turns into a neutron star (practically from neutrons alone). If it rotates and emits radio pulses, then it is. If the core is more than 3 solar masses, then nothing will keep it from destruction and transformation into.

A low-mass star uses up its fuel reserves so slowly that it won't become a main-sequence star until 100 billion to 1 trillion years from now. But the age of the Universe reaches 13.7 billion years, which means that such stars have not yet died. Scientists have found that these red dwarfs are not destined to merge with anything but hydrogen, which means they will never grow into red giants. As a result, their fate is cooling and transformation into black dwarfs.

Thermonuclear reactions and compact objects

Astrophysicist Valery Suleimanov on atmospheric modeling, the "big controversy" in astronomy, and neutron star mergers:

Astrophysicist Sergei Popov on the distance to stars, the formation of black holes and the Olbers paradox:

We are accustomed to our system being illuminated exclusively by one star. But there are other systems in which two stars in the sky orbit relative to each other. To be more precise, only 1/3 of the stars similar to the Sun are located alone, and 2/3 are double stars. For example, Proxima Centauri is part of a multiple system that includes Alpha Centauri A and B. Approximately 30% of the stars are multiple.

This type is formed when two protostars develop side by side. One of them will be stronger and will begin to influence gravity, creating mass transfer. If one appears in the form of a giant, and the second is a neutron star or a black hole, then we can expect the appearance of an X-ray binary system, where the substance is incredibly hot - 555500 ° C. In the presence of a white dwarf, gas from a companion can flare up as a nova. Periodically, the dwarf's gas builds up and is able to instantly merge, causing the star to explode in a Type I supernova that can outshine the galaxy with its radiance for several months.

Relativistic double stars

Astrophysicist Sergei Popov on measuring the mass of a star, black holes and ultra-powerful sources:

Properties of double stars

Astrophysicist Sergei Popov on planetary nebulae, white helium dwarfs and gravitational waves:

Characteristics of the stars

Brightness

To describe the brightness of stellar celestial bodies, magnitude and luminosity are used. The concept of magnitude is based on the work of Hipparchus in 125 BC. He numbered the star groups based on apparent brightness. The brightest are the first magnitude, and so on up to the sixth. However, the distance between and a star can affect visible light, so now they add a description of the actual brightness - an absolute value. It is calculated using the apparent magnitude, as if it were 32.6 light-years from Earth. The modern magnitude scale rises above six and falls below one (the apparent magnitude reaches -1.46). Below you can study the list of the brightest stars in the sky from the position of an observer of the Earth.

List of brightest stars visible from Earth

Other famous stars:

The luminosity of a star is the rate at which energy is emitted. It is measured by comparison with solar brightness. For example, Alpha Centauri A is 1.3 times brighter than the Sun. To make the same calculations in absolute value, you have to take into account that 5 on the absolute scale is equal to 100 on the luminosity mark. Brightness depends on temperature and size.

Color

You may have noticed that the stars differ in color, which actually depends on the surface temperature.

Each star has one color, but produces a wide spectrum, including all types of radiation. A variety of elements and compounds absorb and emit colors or wavelengths of color. Studying the stellar spectrum, you can understand the composition.

Surface temperature

The temperature of stellar celestial bodies is measured in kelvins with a zero temperature of -273.15 °C. The temperature of a dark red star is 2500K, a bright red star is 3500K, a yellow one is 5500K, and a blue one is from 10000K to 50000K. Temperature is partly affected by mass, brightness, and color.

Size

The size of stellar space objects is determined in comparison with the solar radius. Alpha Centauri A has 1.05 solar radii. Sizes may vary. For example, neutron stars are 20 km wide, but supergiants are 1000 times the solar diameter. Size affects stellar brightness (luminosity is proportional to the square of the radius). In the lower figures, you can consider a comparison of the sizes of the stars of the Universe, including a comparison with the parameters of the planets of the solar system.

Comparative sizes of stars

Weight

Here, too, everything is calculated in comparison with solar parameters. The mass of Alpha Centauri A is 1.08 solar. Stars with the same masses may not converge in size. The mass of a star affects the temperature.