Interesting facts about the sky. Report on the topic: “Stars and constellations

For centuries, people have watched the patterns of stars in the night sky. constellations.

When studying the starry sky, astronomers ancient world divided the sky into regions. Each region was divided into groups of stars called constellations.

constellations- these are the sections into which the celestial sphere is divided for the convenience of orienting in the starry sky. Translated from Latin, "constellation" means "a group of stars." They serve as excellent landmarks to help you find the stars. One constellation can contain from 10 to 150 stars.

A total of 88 constellations are known. 47 are ancient, known for several millennia. Many of them bear the names of the heroes of ancient Greek myths, such as Hercules, Hydra, Cassiopeia, and cover the region of the sky accessible to observations from the south of Europe. The 12 constellations are traditionally called the zodiac. These are known to all: Sagittarius, Capricorn, Aquarius, Pisces, Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, Leo, Virgo, Libra and Scorpio. The remaining modern constellations were introduced in the 17th and 18th centuries as a result of the study of the southern sky.

You could determine your location by finding a certain constellation in the sky in a particular place in the sky. The selection of certain patterns in the mass of stars helped in the study of the starry sky. The astronomers of the ancient world divided the sky into regions. Each region was divided into groups of stars called constellations.

Constellations are imaginary shapes that stars form in the sky. The night sky is a canvas dotted with dotted paintings. People have found pictures in the sky since ancient times.

The constellations were given names, legends and myths were composed about them. Different peoples divided the stars into constellations in different ways.

Some of the stories associated with the formation of the constellations were extremely bizarre. Here, for example, is the picture that the ancient Egyptians saw in the constellation surrounding the Big Dipper Bucket. They saw a bull, a man lay next to him, a man was dragged along the ground by a hippopotamus, which walked on two legs and carried a crocodile on its back.

People saw in the sky what they wanted to see. The hunting tribes saw star paintings of the wild animals they hunted. European navigators found constellations that resembled a compass in shape. Indeed, scientists believe that the main use of the constellations was to learn how to navigate the sea while sailing.

There is a legend that tells that the wife of the Egyptian pharaoh Berenice (Veronica) offered her luxurious hair as a gift to the goddess Venus. But the hair was stolen from the halls of Venus and entered the sky as a constellation. In summer, the constellation Coma Berenices can be seen in the Northern Hemisphere below the handle of the Big Dipper Dipper.

Many constellation stories have their origins in Greek mythology. Here is one of them. The goddess Juno was jealous of her husband Jupiter, the maid Callisto. To protect Callisto, Jupiter turned her into a bear. But this created a new problem. One day the son of Callisto went hunting and saw his mother. Thinking that this was an ordinary bear, he raised his bow and took aim, Jupiter intervened and, in order to prevent the murder, turned the young man into a small bear cub. So, according to the myth, a big bear and a little bear cub appeared in the sky. Now these constellations are called Big Dipper and Ursa Minor.

The position of the stars in relation to each other is constant, but they all revolve around a certain point. In the northern hemisphere this point corresponds polar star. If you point a camera at this star on a fixed tripod and wait an hour, you can be sure that each of the photographed stars described part of the circle.

When looking at the sky from the northern hemisphere, the North Star is in the center, and Ursa Minor is above it. The Big Dipper is located on the left, the Dragon “squeezed” between the two Dipper. Under Ursa Minor, in the shape of an inverted M, is the constellation Cassiopeia.

In the southern hemisphere there is no central star that could serve as a reference point (axis) around which, as it seems to us, all the stars revolve. Above the center is South Cross, and above him, in turn, the Centaur, as if surrounding him. The Southern Triangle is visible to the left, and below it is the Peacock. Even lower is the constellation Toucan.

Since the Earth revolves around the Sun in a year, its position relative to the stars is constantly changing. Every night the view of the sky is slightly different from what it was yesterday. In the northern hemisphere in the summer, Ursa Minor is visible in the center, and above it is visible the Dragon, as if surrounding it, and below, on the right, the zigzag of Cassiopeia, above it is the constellation Cepheus, on the left is Ursa Major.

In winter, in the northern hemisphere, another part of the sky is visible from Earth. On the right, one of the most beautiful constellations, Orion, is distinguishable, and in the middle of it is Orion's Belt. Below you can see the small constellation Hare. If you draw a line down from Orion's Belt, you will notice the brightest star in the sky, Sirius, which in our latitudes never rises high above the horizon.

It seems that the stars in the constellations are close to each other, in fact, this is an illusion.

The stars of the constellations are separated from each other by trillions of kilometers. But more distant stars can be brighter and look the same as less luminous stars closer together. From Earth, we see the constellations as flat.

Stars are like people, they are born and they die. They are in constant motion. Therefore, over time, the outlines of the constellations change. A million years ago, the current Big Dipper Bucket looked not like a bucket, but like a long spear. Perhaps in a million years, people will have to come up with new names for the constellations, because their shape will undoubtedly change.

Maybe somewhere, there is a planetary system, from which our Sun looks like a small star, part of some constellation, in the outlines of which the inhabitants of a distant planet see the silhouette of their native exotic animal.

ESSAY

4th "B" class students

MBOU secondary school №3

them. ataman M.I. Platov

Golovacheva Lydia

Classroom teacher:

Udovitchenko

Lyudmila Nikolaevna

on the topic of:

"Stars and Constellations"

1. The concept of constellations, types of constellations.

2. The history of the names of the constellations.

3. Star cards.

Bibliography:

1. Universe: Encyclopedia for children / Per. from fr. N. Klokovoy M .: Egmont Russia LTD., 2001 /

The night sky is striking in its beauty and countless celestial fireflies. What is especially fascinating is that their arrangement is structured, as if they were deliberately placed in the right order, forming star systems. From ancient times, learned astrologers tried to calculate all these myriad heavenly bodies and give them names. Today, a huge number of stars have been discovered in the sky, but this is just a small part of all the existing vast Universe. Consider what constellations and luminaries are.

In contact with

Stars and their classification

A star is a celestial body that radiates a huge amount of light and heat.

It consists mainly of helium (lat. Helium), as well as (lat. Hydrogenium).

The celestial body is in a state of equilibrium due to the pressure inside the body itself and its own.

Heat and light radiates as a result of thermonuclear reactions, occurring inside the body.

What are the types depending on life cycle and structures:

• main sequence. This is the main life cycle of the luminary. This is exactly what it is, as well as the vast majority of others.
• Brown dwarf. A relatively small, dim object with a low temperature. The first one was opened in 1995.
• White dwarf. At the end of its life cycle, the ball begins to shrink until its density balances gravity. Then it turns off and cools down.
• Red giant. A huge body that emits a large amount of light, but not very hot (up to 5000 K).
• New. New stars do not light up, just old ones flare up with renewed vigor.
• Supernova. It's the same new one with an ejection a large number Sveta.
• Hypernova. This is a supernova, but much larger.
• Bright Blue Variables (LBV). The biggest and also the hottest.
• Ultra X-ray sources (ULX). They give off a lot of radiation.
• Neutron. It is characterized by fast rotation, as well as a strong magnetic field.
• Unique. Double, with different sizes.

Types dependently from the spectrum:

• Blue.
• White-blue.
• White.
• Yellow white.
• Yellow.
• Orange.
• Red.

Important! Most of the stars in the sky are entire systems. What we see as one can actually be two, three, five, and even hundreds of bodies of one system.

Names of stars and constellations

At all times the stars fascinated. They became the object of study, both from the mystical side (astrology, alchemy), and from the scientific side (astronomy). People searched for them, calculated, counted, put them into constellations, and also give them names. Constellations are clusters of celestial bodies arranged in a certain sequence.

In the sky under certain conditions from different points you can see up to 6 thousand stars. They have their scientific names, but about three hundred of them also have personal names that they have received since ancient times. The stars mostly have Arabic names.

The fact is that when astronomy was actively developing everywhere, western world experienced the "dark ages", so its development has lagged far behind. Mesopotamia was the most successful here, and China was the least successful.

The Arabs not only discovered new ones, but they also renamed the heavenly bodies, who already had a Latin or Greek name. They entered history with Arabic names. The constellations, for the most part, had Latin names.

The brightness depends on the emitted light, size and distance from us. The brightest star is the Sun. It is not the largest, not the brightest, but closest to us.

The most beautiful luminaries with the highest brightness. The first among them:

1. Sirius (Alpha Canis Major);
2. Canopus (Alpha Carina);
3. Toliman (Alpha Centauri);
4. Arcturus (Alpha Bootes);
5. Vega (Alpha Lyra).

Naming periods

It is conditionally possible to distinguish several periods in which people gave names to heavenly bodies.

pre-antique period

Since ancient times, people have tried to "understand" the sky, and gave names to the night luminaries. No more than 20 names from those times have come down to us. The scientists of Babylon, Egypt, Israel, Assyria and Mesopotamia actively worked here.

Greek period

The Greeks did not particularly delve into astronomy. They gave names only to a small number of luminaries. Mostly, they took names from the names of the constellations or simply attributed existing names. All astronomical knowledge ancient greece and also Babylon were gathered Greek scientist Ptolemy Claudius(I-II c.) in the works "Almagest" and "Tetrabiblos".

Almagest (Great Building) - the work of Ptolemy in thirteen books, where he, on the basis of the work of Hipparchus of Nicaea (c. 140 BC), tries to explain the structure of the universe. He also lists the names of some of the brightest constellations.

Table of celestial bodies described in the Almagest

Tetrabiblos is another work of Ptolemy Claudius in four books. The list of celestial bodies is supplemented here.

Roman period

The Roman Empire was engaged in the study of astronomy, but when this science began to develop actively, Rome fell. And behind the state, his science fell into decay. However, about a hundred stars have Latin names, although this does not guarantee that they were given names their scholars from Rome.

Arabic period

Fundamental in the study of astronomy among the Arabs was the work of Ptolemy Almagest. Most of them have been translated into Arabic language. Based on the religious beliefs of the Arabs, they replaced the names of parts of the luminaries. Names were often given based on the location of the body in the constellation. So, many of them have names or parts of names meaning neck, leg or tail.

Table of Arabic names

Renaissance

Since the 16th century in Europe, antiquity has been reborn, and with it science. Arabic names did not change, but Arabic-Latin hybrids often appeared.

New clusters of celestial bodies were practically not discovered, but the old ones were supplemented by new objects. A significant event of that time was the release of the atlas of the starry sky "Uranometriya".

Its compiler was the amateur astronomer Johann Bayer (1603). On the atlas, he applied an artistic image of the constellations.

Most importantly, he suggested luminary naming principle with added letters Greek alphabet. The brightest body of the constellation will be called Alpha, the less bright Beta, and so on until Omega. For example, the brightest star in Scorpio is Alpha Scorpii, the less bright Beta Scorpii, then Gamma Scorpii, and so on.

Nowadays

With the advent of powerful ones, a huge number of luminaries began to be discovered. Now they don't give beautiful names, but simply assign an index with a numeric and alphabetic code. But it happens that celestial bodies are given nominal names. They are called by their names scientific discoverers, and now you can even buy the opportunity to name the luminary at will.

Important! The sun is not part of any constellation.

What are the constellations

Initially, the figures were figures formed by bright luminaries. Now scientists use them as landmarks of the celestial sphere.

The most famous constellations alphabetically:

1. Andromeda. It is located in the northern hemisphere of the celestial sphere.
2. Twins. The luminaries with the greatest brightness are Pollux and Castor. Zodiac sign.
3. Big Dipper. Seven stars forming the image of a ladle.
4. Big Dog. It has the brightest star in the sky - Sirius.
5. Scales. Zodiac, consisting of 83 objects.
6. Aquarius. Zodiacal, with an asterism forming a jug.
7. Auriga. Its most outstanding object is the Chapel.
8. Wolf. Located in the southern hemisphere.
9. Bootes. The brightest luminary is Arcturus.
10. Veronica's hair. Consists of 64 visible objects.
11. Crow. It is best seen in mid-latitudes.
12. Hercules. Has 235 visible objects.
13. Hydra. The most important luminary is Alphard.
14. Pigeon. 71 bodies of the southern hemisphere.
15. Hounds Dogs. 57 visible objects.
16. Virgo. Zodiac, with the brightest body - Spica.
17. Dolphin. It can be seen everywhere except Antarctica.
18. The Dragon. Northern hemisphere, practically a pole.
19. Unicorn. Located on the Milky Way.
20. Altar. 60 visible stars.
21. Painter. It has 49 objects.
22. Giraffe. Faintly visible in the northern hemisphere.
23. Crane. The brightest is Alnair.
24. Hare. 72 celestial bodies.
25. Ophiuchus. 13th sign of the zodiac, but not included in this list.
26. Snake. 106 luminaries.
27. Golden Fish. 32 objects visible to the naked eye.
28. Indian. Faintly visible constellation.
29. Cassiopeia. The shape is similar to the letter "W".
30. Keel. 206 objects.
31. Whale. Located in the "water" zone of the sky.
32. Capricorn. Zodiacal, southern hemisphere.
33. Compass. 43 visible luminaries.
34. Stern. Located on the Milky Way.
35. Swan. Located in the northern part.
36. A lion. Zodiac, northern part.
37. Flying fish. 31 objects.
38. Lyra. The brightest light is Vega.
39. Chanterelle. Dim.
40. Ursa Minor. Located above the North Pole. She has the North Star.
41. Small Horse. 14 luminaries.
42. Small Dog. Bright constellation.
43. Microscope. Southern part.
44. Fly. At the equator.
45. Pump. Southern sky.
46. Square. Passes through the Milky Way.
47. Aries. Zodiacal, having the bodies of Mezarthim, Hamal and Sheratan.
48. Octant. At the south pole.
49. Eagle. At the equator.
50. Orion. It has a bright object - Rigel.
51. Peacock. Southern Hemisphere.
52. Sail. 195 luminaries of the southern hemisphere.
53. Pegasus. south of Andromeda. Its brightest stars are Markab and Enif.
54. Perseus. Discovered by Ptolemy. The first object is Mirfak.
55. Bake. Virtually invisible.
56. Paradise Bird. Located near the south pole.
57. Crayfish. Zodiacal, hardly visible.
58. Cutter. Southern part.
59. Fishes. A large constellation divided into two parts.
60. Lynx. 92 visible luminaries.
61. Northern Crown. Crown shape.
62. Sextant. At the equator.
63. Net. Consists of 22 objects.
64. Scorpion. The first luminary is Antares.
65. Sculptor. 55 celestial bodies.
66. Sagittarius. Zodiacal.
67. Taurus. Zodiacal. Aldebaran is the brightest object.
68. Triangle. 25 stars.
69. Toucan. This is where the Small Magellanic Cloud is located.
70. Phoenix. 63 luminaries.
71. Chameleon. Small and dim.
72. Centaurus. Its brightest star for us, Proxima Centauri, is the closest to the Sun.
73. Cepheus. Has the shape of a triangle.
74. Compass. Near Alpha Centauri.
75. Clock. It has an elongated shape.
76. Shield. Near the equator.
77. Eridanus. Big constellation.
78. Southern Hydra. 32 celestial bodies.
79. South Crown. Weakly visible.
80. Southern Fish. 43 objects.
81. South Cross. In the form of a cross.
82. Southern Triangle. Has the shape of a triangle.
83. Lizard. No bright objects.

What are the constellations of the zodiac

The signs of the zodiac are the constellations through which Earth travels throughout the year, forming a conditional ring around the system. Interestingly, 12 signs of the zodiac are accepted, although Ophiuchus, which is not considered a zodiac, is also located on this ring.

Attention! Constellations don't exist.

By and large, there are no figures at all made up of celestial bodies.

After all, we, looking at the sky, perceive it as plane in two dimensions, but the luminaries are located not on a plane, but in space, at a great distance from each other.

They do not form any pattern.

Let's say the light from Proxima Centauri closest to the Sun reaches us in almost 4.3 years.

And from another object of the same star system, Omega Centauri reaches the earth in 16 thousand years. All divisions are rather conditional.

Constellations and stars - sky map, interesting facts

Names of stars and constellations

Conclusion

It is impossible to calculate the reliable number of heavenly bodies in the Universe. You can't even get close to the exact number. Stars coalesce into galaxies. Only our Milky Way galaxy has about 100,000,000,000. From the Earth with the help of the most powerful telescopes about 55,000,000,000 galaxies can be detected. With the advent of the Hubble telescope, which is in Earth orbit, scientists have discovered about 125,000,000,000 galaxies, and each has billions, hundreds of billions of objects. It is only clear that there are at least a trillion trillion luminaries in the Universe, but this is only a small part of what is real.

> Stars

All information about stars for children: description with photos and videos, interesting facts, how stars are born and die, types, white dwarf, supernova, black hole.

A shooting star for children and adults seems to be an incredibly beautiful and magical event when you can make a wish. However, real stars look even more interesting objects of the Universe, because before us are giant balls of seething gas with high temperatures. Moreover, their death is only new stage life in the form of even more mysterious objects, like black holes or neutron stars. Below you will find out the description, characteristics and the most interesting facts about stars with photos, pictures, drawings, videos and diagrams of rotation around the center of the galaxy.

Parents or teachers at school can start explanation for children because they are not just the most common objects in the universe, but also the main galactic building blocks. With the help of age, composition and distribution, one can understand the historical dynamics and evolution of a particular galaxy. Also children should know that stars are responsible for the creation and distribution of heavy elements (carbon, oxygen and nitrogen), so their characteristics resemble planetary ones.

Star formation - explanation for children

Important explain to children that stars are born from dust and gas clouds, after which they disperse through galaxies. Take, for example, the Orion Nebula. So, deep within these clouds, there is intense turbulence that creates massive knots that cause dust and gas to collapse due to their own gravity. As the entire cloud begins to collapse, the material at the very center heats up and turns into a protostar. This hot core in the center will soon become a star.

To explanation for children It became clear that computer models demonstrate an interesting thing. During the breaking process, the clouds may split into two or three drops. That is why most of the stars are grouped into pairs or clusters.

But not all the material collected by the hot core becomes part of the star. It can form planets, asteroids, comets, or remain dust. In some cases, the cloud may not collapse at a sustainable rate. In 2004, amateur astronomer James McNeill spotted a small nebula that suddenly appeared near the M78 nebula in the constellation Orion. When other astronomers found out about this, they realized that its brightness was changing. Inspection by the Chandra X-ray Observatory made it clear that the magnetic field interacts with the surrounding gas, which leads to an episodic increase in brightness.

Why do stars light up?

Cartoon about the birth of stars, globular clusters and the future of the Milky Way:

Main sequence stars - explanation for children

For the little ones It is important to realize that it will take about 50 million years for a solar-sized star to go from collapse to adulthood. Our Sun will transition into maturity in about 10 billion years.

Stars also feed, though they use the nuclear fusion of hydrogen to form helium inside themselves as food. An energy flow is constantly coming from the central region, which forms pressure. Children must understand that it is necessary so that the star does not collapse from the gravity of its own weight and energy.

Stars main sequence cover a wide variety of brightness and colors. They can even be classified according to these characteristics. The smallest are called red dwarfs. They reach only 10% of the solar mass and release 0.01% of the energy at a temperature of 3000-4000 K. Despite this diminutiveness, they outnumber other species in number and have existed for tens of billions of years.

The largest are supergiants. They are 100 times larger than the Sun, and their temperature heats up to 30,000K. Energy radiation also exceeds the solar one by hundreds of thousands of times, but they live only a couple of million years. Although they were common in the early universe, they are rare now. There are only a few in our galaxy.

Stars and their fate - an explanation for children

For the little ones, it has probably already become clear that what more star the less she lives. Death occurs at the moment when it burns the entire supply of internal hydrogen. Without the necessary energy, it starts the process of destruction and shines brighter. It shines with hydrogen, which is still available in the shell around the nucleus. The heated core pushes out the outer layers, causing the object to swell and lose temperature. Then we see a red giant.

If the star was massive, then the core is heated to such critical temperatures that it begins to reproduce heavy elements (even iron). But this does not save, but only delays the inevitable. Soon it burns out, continuing to pulsate, shed its outer layers and envelop itself in a haze of gas and dust. Subsequent processes already depend on the size of the kernel.

How do stars die?

Cartoon about the evolution of stars, the main sequence and the fate of red giants:

Medium stars are white dwarfs

For such stars (our Sun), the process of getting rid of the outer layers continues until the core opens. This is a now dead, but still dangerous and active hot ball, which is called a white dwarf. Their dimensions usually reach the earth, although they weigh the same as a star. But why didn't they collapse? It's all about quantum mechanics.

The star is kept from destruction by fast moving electrons that create pressure. The more massive the core, the denser the white dwarf will be (smaller diameter - big mass). Children should know that in a few billion years our Sun will also pass into the stage of a white dwarf. It will last until it cools down. This fate is prepared for those stars that are about 1.4 times the solar mass. If it is greater, then the pressure will not keep the core from collapsing.

A white dwarf can go supernova - an explanation for children

If the white dwarf is located in a binary or multiple star system, then it will survive more intense processes. New stars were once simply called new stars. But to be specific, these are old stars that have turned into white dwarfs. If it is located close to the "star comrade", then it can begin to steal hydrogen from the outer layers of the unfortunate. Once enough hydrogen has accumulated, a fusion explosion occurs, and the white dwarf scavenges the remaining material and glows brighter. This lasts for several days, after which a repeated cycle of the same operations begins. If the dwarf is large, it can gain so much mass that it collapses and completely recovers in the form of a supernova.

Supernovae bypass neutron stars or black holes

If a star reaches a mass greater than eight solar masses, then it is doomed to die and become a supernova. Important explain to children that this is not just the birth of a new star. In the previous one, the core explodes completely, which gives rise to the formation of iron. When it appears, it means that the star has given up all the energy (heavier elements will absorb it). The object is no longer able to support its mass, and the iron core collapses. It takes only a couple of seconds, and the core decreases sharply, increasing the temperature by a million degrees or more.

The outer layers are destroyed along with the core, bounce off and scatter to the sides. A supernova is an amazing sight, as at this moment a huge amount of energy is released. There is so much of it that it can outshine the entire galaxy for weeks! On average, such outbreaks occur once every 100 years. Every year you can find 25-50 supernovae that appear, but they are located so far away that you can’t see it without a telescope.

Neutron stars - explanation for children

If the core at the center of a supernova is 1.4-3 solar masses, then the destruction lasts until the electrons and protons create neutrons. This is where the formation of a neutron star begins. These are extremely dense objects with a small volume, which gives rise to strong gravity. If it appeared in a multiple star system, then it can collect gas from neighboring satellites.

In addition, they have a powerful magnetic field that can increase the speed of atomic particles around the magnetic poles, due to which strong beams of radiation are formed. The star rotates, and these rays, like a searchlight, spread in different directions. If they regularly hit the Earth, then we will notice pulses that appear every time the magnetic pole passes by the line of sight. In this case, the neutron star is called a pulsar.

Black holes - an explanation for children

If the collapsing stellar core is three times the stellar mass, then it is completely destroyed, creating a black hole. Parents or at school must explain to the youngest children that it is an incredibly dense object with gravity so strong that it does not even release light. Earth instruments cannot see it, but we study its size and location due to its influence on neighboring bodies.

After novae and supernovae, dust and debris is left that merges with dimensional dust and gas to form the building blocks for a new stellar generation.

We hope that the information about stars, their types, varieties, classification and evolution seemed useful and interesting. In order for children to better remember interesting facts, show them photos, pictures, drawings, videos and documentary cartoons on the site. For the most curious, we have 3D models of not only the solar system, but also the most famous stars with galaxies, clusters and constellations. You can travel through space online, studying maps of the starry sky and the surfaces of amazing objects like Alpha Centauri, Eridanus, the North Star, Arcturus or Sirius.

Every person at least once in his life admired the stars, looking at the night sky. They are mysterious, attractive, and there are many interesting facts associated with them.

We all know that the Moon is a satellite of the Earth. However, a little-known fact is that it always turns one side to our planet. The "dark" side of the satellite causes a lot of controversy among scientists and regularly becomes the reason for the emergence of amazing theories about the existence of extraterrestrial civilizations.

The daily temperature on the surface of Venus is about 425 degrees.

On the Moon, the highest temperature reaches +116 degrees, the lowest drops to -164 degrees. The satellite of the Earth is four hundred times smaller than the Sun and four hundred times closer to our planet.

Earth is the only planet not named after an ancient deity.

It takes the moon just over 27 days to orbit the earth. Our planet revolves around the sun in one year (365 days). It takes eight and a half minutes for light from the Sun to reach us.

The weight of our planet is about 600 trillion tons.

The number of members of the unique computer program SETI, which provides an opportunity for every user of the World Wide Web to take part in the search for aliens, is more than three million.

Studying interesting facts about stars and planets, scientists came to the conclusion that the volume of Saturn is 758 times larger than the Earth. However, this planet is incredibly light. If you put it in the largest aquarium with water, then it will begin to float on its surface.

Ceres is the largest asteroid. Its radius is about 470 kilometers. It is the first asteroid that was discovered by man. They became the Italian Piazzi. This amazing event happened in January 1801.

Modern scientists divide the sky into eighty-eight sectors. They are called constellations. Interesting facts about stars include the fact that the Sun moves through the Galaxy at a speed of 250 kilometers per second. Compared to our planet, its weight is 333 thousand times more. It takes the sun two hundred million years to complete its orbit around the center of the galaxy.

This star is 30% helium and 70% hydrogen. Its radius is approximately 218 times the diameter of the Earth.

The human eye can distinguish up to 5000 stars in the sky. Experts believe that there are about 410 billion stars in our galaxy.

Every year, several thousand kilograms of interplanetary dust ends up on our planet.

Our solar system located in the spiral arm of the Milky Way. It consists not only of stars, but also of dust and gas.

7 stars are located at a distance of ten light years from Earth. Proxima, which is part of the Alpha Centauri system, is considered closest to us.

The mass of our planet has increased by 1 billion tons over the past five hundred years. The reason for this is the influence of cosmic matter.

The height of the hills on Mars is 21-26 kilometers. The atmosphere there is 95% carbon monoxide.

An amazing fact is that about 200 thousand meteorites fall on our planet every day.

The planet Uranus can be seen from the surface of the Earth. It is important that you do not need to use special equipment for this. It can be viewed with the naked eye. However, this is possible under the condition of good weather and on a moonless night.

An interesting video about Space in the video. Amazing Facts:

The question of how many stars are in the sky worried the minds of people as soon as the first star was seen by them in the sky (and they are still solving this problem). Astronomers nevertheless made some calculations, establishing that about 4.5 thousand celestial bodies can be seen with the naked eye in the sky, and in the composition of our galaxy Milky Way includes about 150 billion stars. Given that the universe contains several trillion galaxies, the total number of stars and constellations whose light reaches earth's surface, is equal to a septillion - and this estimate is only approximate.

A star is a huge ball of gas that emits light and heat (this is its main difference from the planets, which, being absolutely dark bodies, can only reflect the light rays falling on them). Energy generates light and heat resulting from thermonuclear reactions occurring inside the core: unlike the planets, which include both solid and light elements, celestial bodies contain light particles with a slight admixture solids(for example, the Sun is almost 74% hydrogen and 25% helium).

The temperature of celestial bodies is extremely hot: as a result of a large number of thermonuclear reactions, the temperature indicators of stellar surfaces range from 2 to 22 thousand degrees Celsius.

Since the weight of even the smallest star significantly exceeds the mass of the largest planets, the celestial bodies have sufficient gravity to hold all the smaller objects around them, which begin to spin around them, forming a planetary system (in our case, the Solar System).

flashing luminaries

It is interesting that in astronomy there is such a thing as “new stars” - and this is not about the appearance of new celestial bodies: throughout their existence, hot celestial bodies of moderate luminosity periodically flash brightly, and they begin to stand out so strongly in the sky that people in former times it was believed that new stars were being born.

In fact, data analysis showed that these celestial bodies existed before, but due to the swelling of the surface (the gaseous photosphere), they suddenly acquired a special brightness, increasing their glow by tens of thousands of times, resulting in the impression that new stars appeared in the sky. Returning to the original level of brightness, new stars can change their brightness up to 400 thousand times (at the same time, if the flash itself lasts only a few days, their return to the previous state often takes years).

The life of heavenly bodies

Astronomers say that stars and constellations are still being formed: according to the latest scientific data, about forty new heavenly bodies appear annually in our galaxy alone.

At the initial stage of their education new star is a cold rarefied cloud of interstellar gas that revolves around its galaxy. The impetus for reactions to begin to occur in the cloud, stimulating the formation of a celestial body, can be a supernova that exploded nearby (an explosion of a celestial body, as a result of which it is completely destroyed after a while).

Also quite probable reasons may be its collision with another cloud, or the process may be affected by galaxies colliding with each other, in a word, everything that can affect the gas interstellar cloud and force it to shrink into a ball under its own gravity.

During compression, gravitational energy is converted into heat, causing the gas ball to become extremely hot. When the temperature inside the ball rises to 15-20 K, thermonuclear reactions begin to occur, as a result of which compression stops. The ball turns into a full-fledged celestial body, and for a long time inside its core, hydrogen is converted into helium.

When hydrogen supplies run out, reactions stop, a helium core forms, and the structure of the heavenly body gradually begins to change: it becomes brighter, and its outer layers expand. After the weight of the helium core reaches its maximum, the celestial body begins to decrease, the temperature rises.

When temperatures reach 100 million K, thermonuclear processes resume inside the core, during which helium is converted into solid metals: helium - carbon - oxygen - silicon - iron (when the core becomes iron, all reactions completely stop). As a result, a bright star, having increased a hundred times, turns into a Red giant.

How long this or that luminary will live depends largely on its size: small celestial bodies burn hydrogen reserves very slowly and are quite capable of surviving for billions of years. Due to their lack of mass, they do not react with helium, and after cooling, they continue to emit a small amount of the electromagnetic spectrum.

The life of luminaries of medium parameters, including the Sun, is about 10 billion. After this period, their surface layers usually turn into a nebula with an absolutely lifeless core inside. This core some time later transforms into a helium white dwarf, not much larger than Earth in diameter, then darkens and becomes invisible.

If a medium-sized celestial body was quite large, it first turns into black hole and then a supernova explodes in its place.

But the duration of the existence of supermassive luminaries (for example, the North Star) lasts only a few million years: in hot and large celestial bodies, hydrogen burns out extremely quickly. After a huge celestial body ends its existence, in its place there is an explosion of extremely huge force - and a supernova appears.

Explosions in the universe

Astronomers call a supernova a star's explosion, during which the object is almost completely destroyed. After a few years, the volume of a supernova increases so much that it becomes translucent and very rarefied - and these remnants can be seen for several thousand more years, after which it darkens and transforms into a body composed entirely of neutrons. Interestingly, this phenomenon is not uncommon and occurs in the galaxy once every thirty years.

Classification

Most of the celestial bodies visible to us are classified as main sequence stars, that is, celestial bodies within which thermonuclear processes occur, causing the conversion of hydrogen into helium. Astronomers divide them depending on their color and temperature indicators into the following classes of stars:

• Blue, temperature: 22 thousand degrees Celsius (class O);
• White-blue, temperature: 14 thousand degrees Celsius (class B);
• White, temperature: 10 thousand degrees Celsius (class A);
• White-yellow, temperature: 6.7 thousand degrees Celsius (class F);
• Yellow, temperature: 5.5 thousand degrees Celsius (class G);
• Yellow-orange, temperature: 3.8 thousand degrees Celsius (class K);
• Red, temperature: 1.8 thousand degrees Celsius (class M).

In addition to the luminaries of the main sequence, scientists distinguish the following types of celestial bodies:

• Brown dwarfs are too small celestial bodies for the process of converting hydrogen into helium inside the core, so they are not full-fledged stars. By themselves, they are extremely dim, and scientists only learned of their existence from the infrared radiation emitted by them.
• Red giants and supergiants - despite its low temperature (from 2.7 to 4.7 thousand degrees Celsius), this is an extremely bright star, infrared radiation which reaches its maximum.
• Wolf-Rayet type - radiation is distinguished by the fact that it contains ionized helium, hydrogen, carbon, oxygen and nitrogen. This is a very hot and bright star, which is the helium remnants of huge celestial bodies, which at a certain stage of development threw off their mass.
• Type T Tauri - belong to the class of variable stars, as well as to such classes as F, G, K, M,. They have a large radius, have high brightness. You can see these luminaries near molecular clouds.
• Bright blue variables (also known as Doradus S-type variables) are extremely bright, pulsating hypergiants whose brightness can exceed that of the Sun by a million times and be 150 times heavier. It is believed that a celestial body of this type is the brightest star in the Universe (it occurs, however, very rarely).
• White dwarfs are dying celestial bodies into which medium-sized luminaries are transformed;
• Neutron stars also refer to dying celestial bodies, which, after death, form larger luminaries than the Sun. The nucleus in them decreases until it is converted into neutrons.

Guiding thread for sailors

One of the most famous celestial bodies in our sky is the North Star from the constellation Ursa Minor, which almost never changes its position in the sky relative to a certain latitude. At any time of the year, it points to the north, which is why it got its second name - the North Star.

Naturally, the legend that the North Star does not move is far from the truth: like any other celestial body, it makes revolutions. The north star is unique in that it is closest to north pole- at a distance of about one degree. Therefore, due to the angle of inclination, the North Star seems to be motionless, and for more than one millennium it has served as an excellent guide for sailors, shepherds, and travelers.

It should be noted that the North Star will move if the observer changes its location, since the North Star changes its height depending on the geographical latitude. This feature made it possible for sailors, when measuring the angle of inclination between the horizon and the North Star, to determine their location.

In fact, the Polar Star consists of three objects: not far from it there are two satellite stars that are connected with it by forces of mutual attraction. At the same time, the Polar Star itself belongs to the giants: its radius is almost 50 times greater than the radius of the Sun, and its luminosity exceeds 2.5 thousand times. This means that the North Star will have an extremely short life, and therefore, despite its relatively young age (no more than 70 million years), the North Star is considered old.

Interestingly, in the list of the most bright stars, the North Star is in 46th place - that is why in the city in the night sky, illuminated street lamps, Polaris is almost never visible.

falling luminaries

Sometimes, looking at the sky, you can see how a fallen star is sweeping across the sky, a bright luminous point - sometimes one, sometimes several. It looks like a star has fallen, and the legend immediately comes to mind that when a fallen star catches your eye, you need to make a wish - and it will certainly come true.

Few people think that in reality these are meteorites flying to our planet from space, which, colliding with the Earth's atmosphere, turned out to be so hot that they began to burn and look like a bright flying star, which received the concept of a “fallen star”. Oddly enough, this phenomenon is not uncommon: if you constantly monitor the sky, you can see how a star has fallen almost every night - during the day, about a hundred million meteors and about a hundred tons of very small dust particles burn in the atmosphere of our planet.

In some years, a fallen star appears in the sky much more often than usual, and if it is not alone, earthlings have the opportunity to observe a meteor shower - despite the fact that it seems that a star has fallen on the surface of our planet, almost all celestial bodies of the stream burn up in the atmosphere.

They appear in such quantity when the comet approaches the Sun, heats up and partially collapses, giving a certain amount of stones into space. If you trace the trajectory of meteorites, a deceptive impression is created that they all fly from one point: they move along parallel trajectories and each fallen star has its own.

It is interesting that many of these meteor showers occur in the same period of the year and earthlings have the opportunity to see the fall of a star for quite a long time - from several hours to several weeks.

And only large-sized meteorites with sufficient mass are able to reach the earth's surface, and if at that time such a star fell not far from locality, for example, it happened a few years ago in Chelyabinsk, it can cause extremely devastating consequences. Sometimes a fallen star may not be alone, which is called a meteor shower.