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Shoot For The Stars with Fun Facts
What is a Star?
Stars in the Sky
Stars are huge balls of gas in outer space. Made from hydrogen, helium and other elements, stars produce light, heat and other forms of energy. The twinkling stars that you observe in the night sky are actually very far away from the earth. The Sun is also a star, but is much closer to Earth and hence looks like a huge glowing ball.
The Sun has planets and other objects moving around it. Our Sun, Earth, other planets and rocky objects together are called the Solar System. Many stars have planets moving around them too. Stars have always fascinated kids who ask various questions like why do stars twinkle or how many stars are there in the night sky? Well, here are some very interesting star facts for kids:
Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons ESA/Hubble (Image was taken using the Hubble Space Telescope)Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported
Interesting Star Facts for Kids
- On a clear night, you can see many stars. You may wonder how many stars are there in the universe and surely won’t spend the entire evening counting stars. Well, astronomers think there are large number of stars and guess (estimate) that there are around 1 septillion stars in the Universe1. If you look at the night sky, you can see around 3,000 stars with the naked eye.
- A galaxy is a group of hundreds of billions of stars that are relatively close to each other. Our galaxy, the Milky Way, contains over 100 billion stars. The universe has more than 100 billion galaxies with each galaxy containing an average of 100 billion stars. Well, you can just imagine the number of stars in the entire universe.
- Just like human beings and animals, stars have their own life cycles. They pass through many phases and die. About 90 percent of their lives are spent fusing hydrogen to produce helium. Stars explode when they die. This event is called a supernova. However, very small percentages of stars explode. Most stars end their lives in different ways, some cool down to become white dwarfs and eventually fade into space and become black dwarfs.
- Stars come in different sizes. Some are smaller than our Sun whereas others are so huge that our sun is a mere dot when compared with their size. Some stars, called supergiants have a radius of about a thousand times that of our sun. The smallest stars are called neutron stars. Some neutron stars are so small that their radius is only 10 kilometers (6 miles), which is almost equal to the drives within Manhattan’s Central Park that are used for jogging and bicycling during weekends.
- The poetry “twinkle twinkle little star” must have been inspired by those beautiful stars twinkling in the night sky. But have you ever wondered why stars twinkle at night? The twinkling of stars is actually caused by the movement of Earth’s atmosphere. The light emitted by the star enters the atmosphere in a straight path, but we see stars twinkling because air movements in our atmosphere change the paths constantly, hence the twinkling.
- In ancient times, people observed that certain stars are arranged in patterns resembling animals, common objects or human beings. These patterns, called constellations, also had patterns representing Greek and Roman mythological characters.
Today, the constellations are used by astronomers for mapping stars. There are 88 constellations recognized by the International Astronomical Union (IAU).
- When an average-sized star dies, it sheds its outer layers, which causes the formation of planetary nebula. The Cat’s Eye Nebula is the best example of a planetary nebula.
While these are some of the most common facts, there are more unusual and amazing star facts for kids. Let’s find out what’s in store for us in the next section.
(Example of a Planetary Nebula – The Helix Nebula, image credit:http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/archive/releases/2004/32/image/d/warn/)
More Amazing Star Facts for Kids
- Promixa Centauri is the closest star to Earth. It is located 4.2 light years away. This means that the light from the star takes 4 years to complete its journey to Earth. If you travel to Promixa Centauri on a fastest spacecraft, it will still take you thousands of years, probably over 50,000 years to reach its surface.
- The most massive stars can be as much as 2 billion miles across (our Sun is only 860,000 miles across). If one such massive star were in the solar system, it would gobble up 6 planets, including our Earth.
- The night sky is full of bright and faint stars. But one star stands apart as it is twice as bright as other stars in the night sky. It’s called Sirius. The best time to view Sirius is during the winter months (for observers in the northern hemisphere). Just look south, with or without binoculars, to view the brightest star twinkling in the night sky.
- Stars have their own gravity fields, which keep them close to each other. The best example is the globular cluster, which contains millions of stars tightly held by gravity. In the Milky Way galaxy, there are 147 globular clusters identified by astronomers.
- The Crab Nebula is the remains of a supernova, which occurred in 1050 A.D.
Image of Sirius, the brightest star in the night sky, (NASA/ESA)http://www.spacetelescope.org/images/html/heic0516a.html, Credit: H. Bond (STScI) and M. Barstow (University of Leicester)
References
- 1Cain, Fraser. “How Many Stars?” http://www.universetoday.com/24328/how-many-stars/
- “Galaxies.” History for Kids, http://www.historyforkids.org/scienceforkids/physics/space/galaxy.htm
- “The Natures of the Stars.” http://stars.astro.illinois.edu/sow/star_intro.html
- “Dr. Marc’s Page.” Space Place NASA, http://spaceplace.nasa.gov/search/?q=stars
- NASA and World Book, http://www.nasa.gov/worldbook/star_worldbook.html
The Universe
The Universe
Our universe is a large and unimaginable expanse of dust, gas, stars, clouds, galaxies, and life. Distant worlds waiting to be explored by future space craft. But what is the Universe?
Our universe is a large and unimaginable expanse of dust, gas, stars, clouds, galaxies, and life. Distant worlds waiting to be explored by future space craft. But what is the Universe?
This picture shows the overall structure of our universe. This is just a small piece, but it is enough to see that matter is organized in strands, or strings.
Lets start from the beginning.
Now here is where it gets fun.
If you could look at the entire universe at once it would look like a giant spiderweb, made up of billions of galaxies, and trillions and trillions of stars.
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Stars Astronomy for Kids
| When you look at the night sky you can see many beautiful stars. If you are out in the country or camping in the mountains or the desert away from the city lights, you may see thousands of them. You may even be able to see part of the Milky Way. In a town or city, you can't see nearly as many stars because the city lights create a glow in the sky masking many of them. There are several different kinds of stars in the sky. Some are very big. A couple of stars have been found that are 100 to 200 times larger than the sun. Some very old stars are smaller than the Earth. Scientists study stars and place them in groups based on how they are alike and how they are different. Click on a star type to learn more about each one. |
This is an example of the Hertzsprung–Russell diagram (HR diagram), first used in 1912. Two astronomers, Ejnar Hertzsprung from Denmark and Henry Norris Russell from the Unites States, both discovered that the brightness of a star depends on the surface temperature of the star. They each made this discovery on their own separately. Together, they came up with this diagram that explains the brightness, temperature and classes of stars.
The scale on the left shows how bright a star is.
The letters across the bottom represent the spectral class of stars, or color of stars.
O – Blue
B – Blue/White
A – White
F - White/Yellow
G – Yellow
K – Orange
M - Red
B – Blue/White
A – White
F - White/Yellow
G – Yellow
K – Orange
M - Red
The temperature of the stars measured across the bottom of the scale are measured in Kelvin. Zero Kelvin equals -273 degrees Celsius, -459 degrees Fahrenheit.
As you can see, there are only a few categories of stars. Most stars in our universe are main sequence stars, including our sun Sol. Notice how the biggest stars are the brightest but not the hottest. The white dwarf stars are near the end of their life and losing much of their brightness but they are very hot.
FOR FUN
Can you find Sol? Can you find Antares? Can you find Wolf? What is the temperature of Beta Centauri? What class is Polaris? What class is Bellatrix? How bright is Vega? How bright is Deneb? How bright is Beta Sirius?
Source : Kids Astronomy
Source : Kids Astronomy
Top 10 Twitter Pics of the Week
1. 9gagtweets
On the last day of Coachella weekend 1, Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg stunned their audience when a hologram of Tupac Shakur suddenly appeared on stage for a short set of the deceased rapper’s songs. Tupac’s hologram also performed a duet with Snoop Dogg and Dr. Dre. According to Timemagazine, the hologram of Tupac, who was killed in 1996, was created by Digital Domain, which was also responsible for the visual effects in the film The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. @9gagtweets(46.000+ followers) posted this image to Twitter as a reaction to the performance.
2. Coachella (2)
The Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival’s first weekend (April 15) was attended by a lot of celebrities, including Emma Watson, Paris Hilton and Rihanna (@Rihanna, over 17 million followers).This picture, displaying Rihanna in her Coachella outfit, is the most popular Twitter picture taken at#Coachella weekend 1.
3. You Get Major Points If....
#Yougetmajorpointsif you ask a girl out Pokémon style. This image was tweeted by @pissedpikachu (44.000+ followers).
4. Family
5. You Don't Belong in Twitter If....
@Austinn_Davis (80+ followers) tweeted this image along with, “#YouDontBelongOnTwitterIf this is what you look like”
6. Things Everyone Can Relate To
This image was posted to Twitter account @simsimibitch (200,000+ followers), along with the tweet: “#ThingsEveryoneCanRelateTo RT if you've done one of these. We've all done at least once, don't lie.” Do you recognize any of these?
7. My Biggest Fear Is....
A tribute to our mothers was also part of this week’s list. @iRespectFemales (475.000+ followers) posted this image along with the tweet, “#MyBiggestFearIs Losing My Mom :( R-T if you love your mom!!”
8. Throwback
Prodigy of Mobb Deep (@ProdigyMobbDeep, 90.000+ followers) tweeted this picture of a ticket to Notorious B.I.G.’s performance in 1995. Mobb Deep was the support act for this gig. Notorious B.I.G. was shot dead two years later in 1997, about one year after Tupac Shakur was killed. #throwback
9. Wow
@WOWfakta (220.000+ followers) tweeted this picture of someone licking his elbow. Is this in your repertoire of human tricks? #WOW
10. Am I The Only One Who Does This?
@FinlandJB1D (4000+ followers) posted this image along with the tweet, “#AmITheOnlyOneThat Does This?”
The Twitter universe was lit up by the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival this week, taking the top two spots in our Top 10 Twitter Pics list. An impressive 53 million photos blasted into our Top 10 Twitter Pics labs this week, and humor, hubris, memories and beauty ruled the roost.
Anantapur district in AP has gold mines
Gold mines in Andhra Pradesh
| Ramagiri Gold Mines,Anantapur |
Consumption: In the entire consumption of gold 50% is by the gold ornaments only. It is also used in currency reserves and in industrial needs.40% of the consumption is used in investments and 10% for industrial needs. Gold is also used in Aerospace, Electronics, Atomic energy transmission. It is also used in computers and in many electronic circuits. Gold has many uses in medicinal field also . In ancient days kings used to eat the very thin layer of gold spread on hot rice as it increases the immunity and blood circulation of the body. Now since the gold rate is at its peak this is not possible. But even now some sweets have very thin gold layer as the topping .Coming to Ayurveda, Swarna Bhasma is said to have many advantages and is used in various ayurvedic medicines. The rates of such medicines are also are very high. For example in an ayurvedic medicine called Siddhamakaradhwajam gold is used. The cost of 200-300gms of it before 5yrs was 1000. gold is also used in allopathy . It is used in dentistry mainly . Because gold does not depreciate or get rusted so it is used in dentistry.
Qualities of gold: Gold’s unique qualities like mixing with other metals , to be molded into desired thickness, its flexibility , its elasticity, its lesser depreciation, Its yellow color , its glittering quality altogether are the reasons for the craze for gold.
Gold helps the countries to overcome the economic crisis
Many times gold has proved its capacity to help countries to overcome the economic crisis. The countries like Rumania, Russia, and India which were in high debts got these debts cleared with the help of Gold.
Gulf war :At the time of Gulf war in 1991 as the crude oil cost have gone to their peak to clear off the imported crude oil bills then prime Minister Chandrasekhar had to mortgage 20 Tons of Gold due to lack of reserves of foreign currency.
Details of Gold reserves of various other countries:
Also many countries store the Reserves of foreign currency in the form of gold. Due to the international crisis these days all the countries are finding ways to increase their gold reserves . As a part of this India bought gold of 200 Tons in 2009. According to RBI by 2011 there is 30,700 tons of gold in various Central Banks of the world. By the end of this year with 557.7 tons of gold reserves India stands 11th in the world. America stands first with 8,133.5Tons of Gold holdings. It is 74.7% of its total foreign currency reserves. The next positions are taken by Germany-3,406.8 tons, The International Monetary Fund Organisation-3,005.3 Tons,Italy-2,451.8 tons, France – 2,435.4Tons, China – 1,054.1 Tons, Switzerland – 1,040, Russia 830.5, NetherLands-612.5tons.
Where is gold preserved?
Generally we common people store Gold in safety lockers , Bank lockers. But let us see where the investment organizations, Central banks preserve the tons of their gold reserves .To preserve gold there are gold vaults worldwide. These are just like the FCI go downs. But such big Gold vaults are not there in our country. These are in Singapore, Britain, Germany, and America. They are high security. Now a days the number of people and the central Banks that are showing interest towards these gold reserves is increasing, The scarcity of these gold vaults is increasing . so many of the companies are showing interest to start these gold volts.
Effect of Dollar on gold
As the people are now treating gold as the best investment method the demand for gold is increasing tremendously. Also as the other investing methods are giving huge losses the capitalists are transforming their wealth in the form of gold. With this there is huge hike in the price of the gold. Coming to India’s case not only the demand and supply influence the gold rate but also the dollar influences the gold rate.
For example when the rate of ounce gold cost was 1600 Dollars in international market in the 10gms gold cost in India was 23000- but with the increase of gold rate by 11% in international market and reached 1781 Dollar in India the gold cost was 29270-. The reason being the downfall of value of rupee and increase in value of Dollar. When the gold cost was l1600 Dollars the value of dollar was 45- but now it is more than 50/-. In this way even when the gold rate in international market was decreasing there is no decrease in the gold rates of the country.


















































































