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THE STARS ABOVE US |
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To the professional astronomer, the stars are part of a huge natural laboratory - one of
enormous extremes. While an atomic physicist can test the behavior of matter in a particle
accelerator on Earth, an astrophysicist has access to the far more energetic conditions in
the heart of a distant star, or close to a black hole. Light-years away in the cosmos, the
stars provide a test bed for theories about the behavior of matter that we cannot come
close to on Earth. And they are much more besides. In a sense, the stars are alive: They
are born, they live, and they die. Our local star, the Sun, is no exception. It is halfway
through its 10-billion-year life span, and it too will die - and with it, the Earth. But a
star is a phoenix. From its ashes rises the next generation of stars and planets - and
even life itself.
Take a look below to find out all kinds of information on everything from measuring stars
and life cycles to individual star types including mysterious black holes that form after
a massive explosion of a supergiant as it dies... |
WHAT'S INSIDE |
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Measuring Stars and Life Cycle |
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Come here to check out
how the Parallax Method and the Inverse Square Law work in measuring how far away distant
stars are! Also find out about the magnitude scale and spectral type. Click here to find
out all about stellar evolution, including: birth, the main sequence, and death.
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Variable Stars |
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Learn all about
cataclysmic, eruptive, pulsating, elipsing, and rotating variable stars in this section!
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Binary Stars |
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Come to this section
and find out about star systems that involve two stars orbiting each other! This section
includes: binary pulsars, interacting binaries, and X-Ray binaries.
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Black Holes |
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Click here to find out
about the most bizarre objects in the universe! Also find in this section info on
supermassive black holes and mini black holes.
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Pulsars |
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Find out about these
former neutron stars that became spinning and stars sending out rhythmic bursts of radio
waves. The fastest pulsar sends out a pulse 642 times a second!!!
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White & Brown Dwarfs |
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Click here to learn
about the center of every planetary nebula that is a million times more dense than water!
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Red Giants |
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Find out all kinds of
info about these enormous gas giants including statistics on even bigger objects:
Supergiants!
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Comets, Meteors, and Asteroids |
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Click here to learn
about the the most famous comets including: Halley's Comet and Hale-Bopp. Also learn about
the differences between Meteors, Asteroids, and Comets in this section!
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Nebulae |
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Learn all about the
beautiful after-effects of the death of a red giant.
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Neutron Star and Supernovas |
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Come inside this
section to learn how the most massive stars end their lives in a colossal explosion. These
explosions can even outshine an entire galaxy for a few days! This section also
focuses on the super-dense center of supernovas. A pinhead of neutron star material weighs
twice as much as the world's biggest supertanker!
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STARS