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103-603: Inside of the museum is the Suits-Bueche Planetarium. It contains a GOTO Chronos Star Machine, one of only 16 in the United States, which is capable of displaying 8,500 stars and 24 constellation outlines. The projector can show the sky from any location on Earth 100,000 years in the past or in the future. Also located at miSci is a Challenger Learning Center (CLC), which opened in 2014. The archives contain over 1.5 million photographs , making them

206-456: A protoplanetary disk and powered mainly by the conversion of gravitational energy. The period of gravitational contraction lasts about 10 million years for a star like the sun, up to 100 million years for a red dwarf. Early stars of less than 2  M ☉ are called T Tauri stars , while those with greater mass are Herbig Ae/Be stars . These newly formed stars emit jets of gas along their axis of rotation, which may reduce

309-467: A stellar wind of particles that causes a continual outflow of gas into space. For most stars, the mass lost is negligible. The Sun loses 10   M ☉ every year, or about 0.01% of its total mass over its entire lifespan. However, very massive stars can lose 10 to 10   M ☉ each year, significantly affecting their evolution. Stars that begin with more than 50  M ☉ can lose over half their total mass while on

412-487: A brief period of carbon fusion before the core becomes degenerate. During the AGB phase, stars undergo thermal pulses due to instabilities in the core of the star. In these thermal pulses, the luminosity of the star varies and matter is ejected from the star's atmosphere, ultimately forming a planetary nebula. As much as 50 to 70% of a star's mass can be ejected in this mass loss process. Because energy transport in an AGB star

515-496: A burst of electron capture and inverse beta decay . The shockwave formed by this sudden collapse causes the rest of the star to explode in a supernova. Supernovae become so bright that they may briefly outshine the star's entire home galaxy. When they occur within the Milky Way, supernovae have historically been observed by naked-eye observers as "new stars" where none seemingly existed before. A supernova explosion blows away

618-410: A continuous image due to the effect of refraction from sublunary material, citing his observation of the conjunction of Jupiter and Mars on 500 AH (1106/1107 AD) as evidence. Early European astronomers such as Tycho Brahe identified new stars in the night sky (later termed novae ), suggesting that the heavens were not immutable. In 1584, Giordano Bruno suggested that the stars were like

721-440: A difference between " fixed stars ", whose position on the celestial sphere does not change, and "wandering stars" ( planets ), which move noticeably relative to the fixed stars over days or weeks. Many ancient astronomers believed that the stars were permanently affixed to a heavenly sphere and that they were immutable. By convention, astronomers grouped prominent stars into asterisms and constellations and used them to track

824-530: A low relative velocity . Population II , or metal-poor stars , are those with relatively low metallicity which can have hundreds (e.g. BD +17° 3248 ) or thousands (e.g. Sneden's Star ) times less metallicity than the Sun. These objects formed during an earlier time of the universe. Intermediate population II stars are common in the bulge near the center of the Milky Way , whereas Population II stars found in

927-518: A much larger gravitationally bound structure, such as a star cluster or a galaxy. The word "star" ultimately derives from the Proto-Indo-European root "h₂stḗr" also meaning star, but further analyzable as h₂eh₁s- ("to burn", also the source of the word "ash") + -tēr (agentive suffix). Compare Latin stella , Greek aster , German Stern . Some scholars believe the word is a borrowing from Akkadian " istar " ( Venus ). "Star"

1030-546: A net release of energy. Some massive stars, particularly luminous blue variables , are very unstable to the extent that they violently shed their mass into space in events supernova impostors , becoming significantly brighter in the process. Eta Carinae is known for having underwent a supernova impostor event, the Great Eruption, in the 19th century. As a star's core shrinks, the intensity of radiation from that surface increases, creating such radiation pressure on

1133-463: A series of star maps and applied Greek letters as designations to the stars in each constellation. Later a numbering system based on the star's right ascension was invented and added to John Flamsteed 's star catalogue in his book "Historia coelestis Britannica" (the 1712 edition), whereby this numbering system came to be called Flamsteed designation or Flamsteed numbering . The internationally recognized authority for naming celestial bodies

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1236-614: A set of nominal solar values (defined as SI constants, without uncertainties) which can be used for quoting stellar parameters: The solar mass M ☉ was not explicitly defined by the IAU due to the large relative uncertainty ( 10 ) of the Newtonian constant of gravitation G . Since the product of the Newtonian constant of gravitation and solar mass together ( G M ☉ ) has been determined to much greater precision,

1339-499: A star begins with gravitational instability within a molecular cloud, caused by regions of higher density—often triggered by compression of clouds by radiation from massive stars, expanding bubbles in the interstellar medium, the collision of different molecular clouds, or the collision of galaxies (as in a starburst galaxy ). When a region reaches a sufficient density of matter to satisfy the criteria for Jeans instability , it begins to collapse under its own gravitational force. As

1442-434: A star of more than 9 solar masses expands to form first a blue supergiant and then a red supergiant . Particularly massive stars (exceeding 40 solar masses, like Alnilam , the central blue supergiant of Orion's Belt ) do not become red supergiants due to high mass loss. These may instead evolve to a Wolf–Rayet star , characterised by spectra dominated by emission lines of elements heavier than hydrogen, which have reached

1545-836: A star where a terrestrial planet would have runaway greenhouse conditions like Venus , but not so near the star that the atmosphere completely escapes. As with the habitable zone, the location of the Venus zone depends on several factors, including the type of star and properties of the planets such as mass, rotation rate, and atmospheric clouds. Studies of the Kepler spacecraft data indicate that 32% of red dwarfs have potentially Venus-like planets based on planet size and distance from star, increasing to 45% for K-type and G-type stars. Several candidates have been identified, but spectroscopic follow-up studies of their atmospheres are required to determine whether they are like Venus. The Milky Way

1648-474: A system is 16 Cygni . The mutual inclination between two planets is the angle between their orbital planes . Many compact systems with multiple close-in planets interior to the equivalent orbit of Venus are expected to have very low mutual inclinations, so the system (at least the close-in part) would be even flatter than the Solar System. Captured planets could be captured into any arbitrary angle to

1751-438: A system, much material is gravitationally-scattered into distant orbits, and some planets are ejected completely from the system, becoming rogue planets . Planets orbiting pulsars have been discovered. Pulsars are the remnants of the supernova explosions of high-mass stars, but a planetary system that existed before the supernova would likely be mostly destroyed. Planets would either evaporate, be pushed off of their orbits by

1854-451: A very young A-type main-sequence star . There are now a total of 11 stars around which the presence of exocomets have been observed or suspected. All discovered exocometary systems ( Beta Pictoris , HR 10 , 51 Ophiuchi , HR 2174 , 49 Ceti , 5 Vulpeculae , 2 Andromedae , HD 21620 , HD 42111 , HD 110411 , and more recently HD 172555 ) are around very young A-type stars . Computer modelling of an impact in 2013 detected around

1957-407: A white dwarf is no longer a plasma. Eventually, white dwarfs fade into black dwarfs over a very long period of time. In massive stars, fusion continues until the iron core has grown so large (more than 1.4  M ☉ ) that it can no longer support its own mass. This core will suddenly collapse as its electrons are driven into its protons, forming neutrons, neutrinos , and gamma rays in

2060-435: Is 100,000 light-years across, but 90% of planets with known distances are within about 2000 light years of Earth, as of July 2014. One method that can detect planets much further away is microlensing . The upcoming Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope could use microlensing to measure the relative frequency of planets in the galactic bulge versus the galactic disk . So far, the indications are that planets are more common in

2163-420: Is cognate (shares the same root) with the following words: asterisk , asteroid , astral , constellation , Esther . Historically, stars have been important to civilizations throughout the world. They have been part of religious practices, divination rituals, mythology , used for celestial navigation and orientation, to mark the passage of seasons, and to define calendars. Early astronomers recognized

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2266-567: Is estimated to be about 8 times less than the Sun. Different types of galaxies have different histories of star formation and hence planet formation . Planet formation is affected by the ages, metallicities, and orbits of stellar populations within a galaxy. Distribution of stellar populations within a galaxy varies between the different types of galaxies. Stars in elliptical galaxies are much older than stars in spiral galaxies . Most elliptical galaxies contain mainly low-mass stars , with minimal star-formation activity. The distribution of

2369-402: Is from subsurface microbes, and temperature increases as depth underground increases, so the subsurface can be conducive for life when the surface is frozen; if this is considered, the habitable zone extends much further from the star. Studies in 2013 indicate that an estimated 22±8% of Sun-like stars have an Earth-sized planet in the habitable zone. The Venus zone is the region around

2472-409: Is primarily by convection , this ejected material is enriched with the fusion products dredged up from the core. Therefore, the planetary nebula is enriched with elements like carbon and oxygen. Ultimately, the planetary nebula disperses, enriching the general interstellar medium. Therefore, future generations of stars are made of the "star stuff" from past stars. During their helium-burning phase,

2575-575: Is the International Astronomical Union (IAU). The International Astronomical Union maintains the Working Group on Star Names (WGSN) which catalogs and standardizes proper names for stars. A number of private companies sell names of stars which are not recognized by the IAU, professional astronomers, or the amateur astronomy community. The British Library calls this an unregulated commercial enterprise , and

2678-491: Is the Orion Nebula . Most stars form in groups of dozens to hundreds of thousands of stars. Massive stars in these groups may powerfully illuminate those clouds, ionizing the hydrogen, and creating H II regions . Such feedback effects, from star formation, may ultimately disrupt the cloud and prevent further star formation. All stars spend the majority of their existence as main sequence stars , fueled primarily by

2781-450: Is the habitable zone of planetary systems where planets could have surface liquid water, and thus, the capacity to support Earth-like life. Heliocentrism is the doctrine that the Sun is at the centre of the universe, as opposed to geocentrism (placing Earth at the centre of the universe). The notion of a heliocentric Solar System with the Sun at its centre is possibly first suggested in

2884-575: The Algol paradox , where the most-evolved star in a system is the least massive. Planetary system A planetary system is a set of gravitationally bound non-stellar bodies in or out of orbit around a star or star system . Generally speaking, systems with one or more planets constitute a planetary system, although such systems may also consist of bodies such as dwarf planets , asteroids , natural satellites , meteoroids , comets , planetesimals and circumstellar disks . For example,

2987-533: The Copernican theory that Earth and other planets orbit the Sun, put forward the view that the fixed stars are similar to the Sun and are likewise accompanied by planets. He was burned at the stake for his ideas by the Roman Inquisition . In the 18th century, the same possibility was mentioned by Sir Isaac Newton in the " General Scholium " that concludes his Principia . Making a comparison to

3090-701: The M87 and M100 galaxies of the Virgo Cluster , as well as luminous stars in some other relatively nearby galaxies. With the aid of gravitational lensing , a single star (named Icarus ) has been observed at 9 billion light-years away. The concept of a constellation was known to exist during the Babylonian period. Ancient sky watchers imagined that prominent arrangements of stars formed patterns, and they associated these with particular aspects of nature or their myths. Twelve of these formations lay along

3193-526: The New York City Department of Consumer and Worker Protection issued a violation against one such star-naming company for engaging in a deceptive trade practice. Although stellar parameters can be expressed in SI units or Gaussian units , it is often most convenient to express mass , luminosity , and radii in solar units, based on the characteristics of the Sun. In 2015, the IAU defined

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3296-531: The Sun together with the planetary system revolving around it, including Earth , form the Solar System . The term exoplanetary system is sometimes used in reference to other planetary systems. As of 24 July 2024, there are 7,026 confirmed exoplanets in 4,949 planetary systems, with 1007 systems having more than one planet . Debris disks are known to be common while other objects are more difficult to observe. Of particular interest to astrobiology

3399-582: The Vedic literature of ancient India , which often refers to the Sun as the "centre of spheres". Some interpret Aryabhatta 's writings in Āryabhaṭīya as implicitly heliocentric. The idea was first proposed in Western philosophy and Greek astronomy as early as the 3rd century BC by Aristarchus of Samos , but received no support from most other ancient astronomers. De revolutionibus orbium coelestium by Nicolaus Copernicus , published in 1543, presented

3502-474: The accretion of metals. The Sun is an example of a metal-rich star. These are common in the spiral arms of the Milky Way . Generally, the youngest stars, the extreme population I, are found farther in and intermediate population I stars are farther out, etc. The Sun is considered an intermediate population I star. Population I stars have regular elliptical orbits around the Galactic Center , with

3605-461: The angular momentum of the collapsing star and result in small patches of nebulosity known as Herbig–Haro objects . These jets, in combination with radiation from nearby massive stars, may help to drive away the surrounding cloud from which the star was formed. Early in their development, T Tauri stars follow the Hayashi track —they contract and decrease in luminosity while remaining at roughly

3708-451: The galactic halo are older and thus more metal-poor. Globular clusters also contain high numbers of population II stars. In 2014, the first planets around a halo star were announced around Kapteyn's star , the nearest halo star to Earth, around 13 light years away. However, later research suggests that Kapteyn b is just an artefact of stellar activity and that Kapteyn c needs more study to be confirmed. The metallicity of Kapteyn's star

3811-632: The interstellar medium . These elements are then recycled into new stars. Astronomers can determine stellar properties—including mass, age, metallicity (chemical composition), variability , distance , and motion through space —by carrying out observations of a star's apparent brightness , spectrum , and changes in its position in the sky over time. Stars can form orbital systems with other astronomical objects, as in planetary systems and star systems with two or more stars. When two such stars orbit closely, their gravitational interaction can significantly impact their evolution. Stars can form part of

3914-635: The main sequence . Interplanetary dust clouds have been studied in the Solar System and analogs are believed to be present in other planetary systems. Exozodiacal dust, an exoplanetary analog of zodiacal dust , the 1–100 micrometre-sized grains of amorphous carbon and silicate dust that fill the plane of the Solar System has been detected around the 51 Ophiuchi , Fomalhaut , Tau Ceti , and Vega systems. As of November 2014 there are 5,253 known Solar System comets and they are thought to be common components of planetary systems. The first exocomets were detected in 1987 around Beta Pictoris ,

4017-453: The photographic magnitude . The development of the photoelectric photometer allowed precise measurements of magnitude at multiple wavelength intervals. In 1921 Albert A. Michelson made the first measurements of a stellar diameter using an interferometer on the Hooker telescope at Mount Wilson Observatory . Important theoretical work on the physical structure of stars occurred during

4120-756: The radial-velocity method . Nevertheless, several tens of planets around red dwarfs have been discovered by the Kepler space telescope by the transit method , which can detect smaller planets. After planets, circumstellar disks are one of the most commonly-observed properties of planetary systems, particularly of young stars. The Solar System possesses at least four major circumstellar disks (the asteroid belt , Kuiper belt , scattered disc , and Oort cloud ) and clearly-observable disks have been detected around nearby solar analogs including Epsilon Eridani and Tau Ceti . Based on observations of numerous similar disks, they are assumed to be quite common attributes of stars on

4223-401: The search for extraterrestrial intelligence and has been a prevalent theme in fiction , particularly science fiction. The first confirmed detection of an exoplanet was in 1992, with the discovery of several terrestrial-mass planets orbiting the pulsar PSR B1257+12 . The first confirmed detection of exoplanets of a main-sequence star was made in 1995, when a giant planet, 51 Pegasi b ,

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4326-555: The thermonuclear fusion of hydrogen into helium in its core. This process releases energy that traverses the star's interior and radiates into outer space . At the end of a star's lifetime as a fusor , its core becomes a stellar remnant : a white dwarf , a neutron star , or—if it is sufficiently massive—a black hole . Stellar nucleosynthesis in stars or their remnants creates almost all naturally occurring chemical elements heavier than lithium . Stellar mass loss or supernova explosions return chemically enriched material to

4429-535: The 11th century, the Persian polymath scholar Abu Rayhan Biruni described the Milky Way galaxy as a multitude of fragments having the properties of nebulous stars, and gave the latitudes of various stars during a lunar eclipse in 1019. According to Josep Puig, the Andalusian astronomer Ibn Bajjah proposed that the Milky Way was made up of many stars that almost touched one another and appeared to be

4532-476: The 2015 IAU nominal constants will remain the same SI values as they remain useful measures for quoting stellar parameters. Large lengths, such as the radius of a giant star or the semi-major axis of a binary star system, are often expressed in terms of the astronomical unit —approximately equal to the mean distance between the Earth and the Sun (150 million km or approximately 93 million miles). In 2012,

4635-413: The IAU defined the astronomical constant to be an exact length in meters: 149,597,870,700 m. Stars condense from regions of space of higher matter density, yet those regions are less dense than within a vacuum chamber . These regions—known as molecular clouds —consist mostly of hydrogen, with about 23 to 28 percent helium and a few percent heavier elements. One example of such a star-forming region

4738-413: The IAU defined the nominal solar mass parameter to be: The nominal solar mass parameter can be combined with the most recent (2014) CODATA estimate of the Newtonian constant of gravitation G to derive the solar mass to be approximately 1.9885 × 10  kg . Although the exact values for the luminosity, radius, mass parameter, and mass may vary slightly in the future due to observational uncertainties,

4841-436: The Solar System, Isaac Newton suggested that the stars were equally distributed in every direction, an idea prompted by the theologian Richard Bentley . The Italian astronomer Geminiano Montanari recorded observing variations in luminosity of the star Algol in 1667. Edmond Halley published the first measurements of the proper motion of a pair of nearby "fixed" stars, demonstrating that they had changed positions since

4944-439: The Sun enters the helium burning phase, it will expand to a maximum radius of roughly 1 astronomical unit (150 million kilometres), 250 times its present size, and lose 30% of its current mass. As the hydrogen-burning shell produces more helium, the core increases in mass and temperature. In a red giant of up to 2.25  M ☉ , the mass of the helium core becomes degenerate prior to helium fusion . Finally, when

5047-407: The Sun's planets, he wrote "And if the fixed stars are the centres of similar systems, they will all be constructed according to a similar design and subject to the dominion of One ." His theories gained popularity through the 19th and 20th centuries despite a lack of supporting evidence. Long before their confirmation by astronomers, conjecture on the nature of planetary systems had been a focus of

5150-449: The Sun, and may have other planets , possibly even Earth-like, in orbit around them, an idea that had been suggested earlier by the ancient Greek philosophers , Democritus and Epicurus , and by medieval Islamic cosmologists such as Fakhr al-Din al-Razi . By the following century, the idea of the stars being the same as the Sun was reaching a consensus among astronomers. To explain why these stars exerted no net gravitational pull on

5253-502: The band of the ecliptic and these became the basis of astrology . Many of the more prominent individual stars were given names, particularly with Arabic or Latin designations. As well as certain constellations and the Sun itself, individual stars have their own myths . To the Ancient Greeks , some "stars", known as planets (Greek πλανήτης (planētēs), meaning "wanderer"), represented various important deities, from which

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5356-616: The brightest stars have proper names . Astronomers have assembled star catalogues that identify the known stars and provide standardized stellar designations . The observable universe contains an estimated 10 to 10 stars. Only about 4,000 of these stars are visible to the naked eye—all within the Milky Way galaxy . A star's life begins with the gravitational collapse of a gaseous nebula of material largely comprising hydrogen , helium, and trace heavier elements. Its total mass mainly determines its evolution and eventual fate. A star shines for most of its active life due to

5459-502: The chemical composition of the stellar atmosphere to be determined. With the exception of rare events such as supernovae and supernova impostors , individual stars have primarily been observed in the Local Group , and especially in the visible part of the Milky Way (as demonstrated by the detailed star catalogues available for the Milky Way galaxy) and its satellites. Individual stars such as Cepheid variables have been observed in

5562-408: The cloud collapses, individual conglomerations of dense dust and gas form " Bok globules ". As a globule collapses and the density increases, the gravitational energy converts into heat and the temperature rises. When the protostellar cloud has approximately reached the stable condition of hydrostatic equilibrium , a protostar forms at the core. These pre-main-sequence stars are often surrounded by

5665-612: The cloud into multiple stars distributes some of that angular momentum. The primordial binaries transfer some angular momentum by gravitational interactions during close encounters with other stars in young stellar clusters. These interactions tend to split apart more widely separated (soft) binaries while causing hard binaries to become more tightly bound. This produces the separation of binaries into their two observed populations distributions. Stars spend about 90% of their lifetimes fusing hydrogen into helium in high-temperature-and-pressure reactions in their cores. Such stars are said to be on

5768-406: The cluster has dispersed some of the captured planets with orbits larger than 10 AU would be slowly disrupted by the galactic tide and likely become free-floating again through encounters with other field stars or giant molecular clouds . The habitable zone around a star is the region where the temperature range allows for liquid water to exist on a planet; that is, not too close to the star for

5871-559: The conditions of their initial formation. Many systems with a hot Jupiter gas giant very close to the star have been found. Theories, such as planetary migration or scattering, have been proposed for the formation of large planets close to their parent stars. At present, few systems have been found to be analogous to the Solar System with terrestrial planets close to the parent star. More commonly, systems consisting of multiple Super-Earths have been detected. Planetary system architectures may be partitioned into four classes based on how

5974-400: The core. The blown-off outer layers of dying stars include heavy elements, which may be recycled during the formation of new stars. These heavy elements allow the formation of rocky planets. The outflow from supernovae and the stellar wind of large stars play an important part in shaping the interstellar medium. Binary stars ' evolution may significantly differ from that of single stars of

6077-417: The direction of the Milky Way core . His son John Herschel repeated this study in the southern hemisphere and found a corresponding increase in the same direction. In addition to his other accomplishments, William Herschel is noted for his discovery that some stars do not merely lie along the same line of sight, but are physical companions that form binary star systems. The science of stellar spectroscopy

6180-484: The disk than the bulge. Estimates of the distance of microlensing events is difficult: the first planet considered with high probability of being in the bulge is MOA-2011-BLG-293Lb at a distance of 7.7 kiloparsecs (about 25,000 light years). Population I , or metal-rich stars , are those young stars whose metallicity is highest. The high metallicity of population I stars makes them more likely to possess planetary systems than older populations, because planets form by

6283-405: The end of the star's life, fusion continues along a series of onion-layer shells within a massive star. Each shell fuses a different element, with the outermost shell fusing hydrogen; the next shell fusing helium, and so forth. The final stage occurs when a massive star begins producing iron. Since iron nuclei are more tightly bound than any heavier nuclei, any fusion beyond iron does not produce

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6386-448: The existence of exomoons has not yet been confirmed. The star 1SWASP J140747.93-394542.6 , in the constellation Centaurus , is a strong candidate for a natural satellite. Indications suggest that the confirmed extrasolar planet WASP-12b also has at least one satellite. Unlike the Solar System, which has orbits that are nearly circular, many of the known planetary systems display much higher orbital eccentricity . An example of such

6489-526: The first decades of the twentieth century. In 1913, the Hertzsprung-Russell diagram was developed, propelling the astrophysical study of stars. Successful models were developed to explain the interiors of stars and stellar evolution. Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin first proposed that stars were made primarily of hydrogen and helium in her 1925 PhD thesis. The spectra of stars were further understood through advances in quantum physics . This allowed

6592-508: The first mathematically predictive heliocentric model of a planetary system. 17th-century successors Galileo Galilei , Johannes Kepler , and Sir Isaac Newton developed an understanding of physics which led to the gradual acceptance of the idea that the Earth moves around the Sun and that the planets are governed by the same physical laws that governed Earth. In the 16th century the Italian philosopher Giordano Bruno , an early supporter of

6695-437: The main sequence and are called dwarf stars. Starting at zero-age main sequence, the proportion of helium in a star's core will steadily increase, the rate of nuclear fusion at the core will slowly increase, as will the star's temperature and luminosity. The Sun, for example, is estimated to have increased in luminosity by about 40% since it reached the main sequence 4.6 billion ( 4.6 × 10 ) years ago. Every star generates

6798-677: The main sequence. The time a star spends on the main sequence depends primarily on the amount of fuel it has and the rate at which it fuses it. The Sun is expected to live 10 billion ( 10 ) years. Massive stars consume their fuel very rapidly and are short-lived. Low mass stars consume their fuel very slowly. Stars less massive than 0.25  M ☉ , called red dwarfs , are able to fuse nearly all of their mass while stars of about 1  M ☉ can only fuse about 10% of their mass. The combination of their slow fuel-consumption and relatively large usable fuel supply allows low mass stars to last about one trillion ( 10 × 10 ) years;

6901-412: The main sequence. Besides mass, the elements heavier than helium can play a significant role in the evolution of stars. Astronomers label all elements heavier than helium "metals", and call the chemical concentration of these elements in a star, its metallicity . A star's metallicity can influence the time the star takes to burn its fuel, and controls the formation of its magnetic fields, which affects

7004-572: The mass of the planets is distributed around the host star: Multiplanetary systems tend to be in a "peas in a pod" configuration meaning they tend to have the following factors: Most known exoplanets orbit stars roughly similar to the Sun : that is, main-sequence stars of spectral categories F, G, or K. One reason is that planet-search programs have tended to concentrate on such stars. In addition, statistical analyses indicate that lower-mass stars ( red dwarfs , of spectral category M) are less likely to have planets massive enough to be detected by

7107-482: The masses of gas from the exploding star, or the sudden loss of most of the mass of the central star would see them escape the gravitational hold of the star, or in some cases the supernova would kick the pulsar itself out of the system at high velocity so any planets that had survived the explosion would be left behind as free-floating objects. Planets found around pulsars may have formed as a result of pre-existing stellar companions that were almost entirely evaporated by

7210-456: The most extreme of 0.08  M ☉ will last for about 12 trillion years. Red dwarfs become hotter and more luminous as they accumulate helium. When they eventually run out of hydrogen, they contract into a white dwarf and decline in temperature. Since the lifespan of such stars is greater than the current age of the universe (13.8 billion years), no stars under about 0.85  M ☉ are expected to have moved off

7313-445: The motions of the planets and the inferred position of the Sun. The motion of the Sun against the background stars (and the horizon) was used to create calendars , which could be used to regulate agricultural practices. The Gregorian calendar , currently used nearly everywhere in the world, is a solar calendar based on the angle of the Earth's rotational axis relative to its local star, the Sun. The oldest accurately dated star chart

7416-650: The museum from 2015 to 2019. Gina C. Gould, former director of the Ashokan Center , has served as President since 2017. Previously, William "Mac" Sudduth, PhD, was president and director from 2012 to 2017. Star A star is a luminous spheroid of plasma held together by self-gravity . The nearest star to Earth is the Sun . Many other stars are visible to the naked eye at night ; their immense distances from Earth make them appear as fixed points of light. The most prominent stars have been categorised into constellations and asterisms , and many of

7519-484: The names of the planets Mercury , Venus , Mars , Jupiter and Saturn were taken. ( Uranus and Neptune were Greek and Roman gods , but neither planet was known in Antiquity because of their low brightness. Their names were assigned by later astronomers.) Circa 1600, the names of the constellations were used to name the stars in the corresponding regions of the sky. The German astronomer Johann Bayer created

7622-403: The nuclear fusion of hydrogen into helium within their cores. However, stars of different masses have markedly different properties at various stages of their development. The ultimate fate of more massive stars differs from that of less massive stars, as do their luminosities and the impact they have on their environment. Accordingly, astronomers often group stars by their mass: The formation of

7725-479: The orbital periods of the planets are in integer ratios. The Kepler-223 system contains four planets in an 8:6:4:3 orbital resonance . Giant planets are found in mean-motion resonances more often than smaller planets. In interacting systems the planets' orbits are close enough together that they perturb the orbital parameters. The Solar System could be described as weakly interacting. In strongly interacting systems Kepler's laws do not hold. In hierarchical systems

7828-417: The outer convective envelope collapses and the star then moves to the horizontal branch. After a star has fused the helium of its core, it begins fusing helium along a shell surrounding the hot carbon core. The star then follows an evolutionary path called the asymptotic giant branch (AGB) that parallels the other described red-giant phase, but with a higher luminosity. The more massive AGB stars may undergo

7931-404: The outer shell of gas that it will push those layers away, forming a planetary nebula. If what remains after the outer atmosphere has been shed is less than roughly 1.4  M ☉ , it shrinks to a relatively tiny object about the size of Earth, known as a white dwarf . White dwarfs lack the mass for further gravitational compression to take place. The electron-degenerate matter inside

8034-605: The planets are arranged so that the system can be gravitationally considered as a nested system of two-bodies, e.g. in a star with a close-in hot Jupiter with another gas giant much further out, the star and hot Jupiter form a pair that appears as a single object to another planet that is far enough out. Other, as yet unobserved, orbital possibilities include: double planets ; various co-orbital planets such as quasi-satellites, trojans and exchange orbits; and interlocking orbits maintained by precessing orbital planes . Free-floating planets in open clusters have similar velocities to

8137-664: The positions of the stars. They built the first large observatory research institutes, mainly to produce Zij star catalogues. Among these, the Book of Fixed Stars (964) was written by the Persian astronomer Abd al-Rahman al-Sufi , who observed a number of stars, star clusters (including the Omicron Velorum and Brocchi's Clusters ) and galaxies (including the Andromeda Galaxy ). According to A. Zahoor, in

8240-403: The problem of deriving an orbit of binary stars from telescope observations was made by Felix Savary in 1827. The twentieth century saw increasingly rapid advances in the scientific study of stars. The photograph became a valuable astronomical tool. Karl Schwarzschild discovered that the color of a star and, hence, its temperature, could be determined by comparing the visual magnitude against

8343-497: The proper motion of the star Sirius and inferred a hidden companion. Edward Pickering discovered the first spectroscopic binary in 1899 when he observed the periodic splitting of the spectral lines of the star Mizar in a 104-day period. Detailed observations of many binary star systems were collected by astronomers such as Friedrich Georg Wilhelm von Struve and S. W. Burnham , allowing the masses of stars to be determined from computation of orbital elements . The first solution to

8446-482: The rest of the system. As of 2016 there are only a few systems where mutual inclinations have actually been measured One example is the Upsilon Andromedae system: the planets c and d have a mutual inclination of about 30 degrees. Planetary systems can be categorized according to their orbital dynamics as resonant, non-resonant-interacting, hierarchical, or some combination of these. In resonant systems

8549-461: The same mass. For example, when any star expands to become a red giant, it may overflow its Roche lobe , the surrounding region where material is gravitationally bound to it; if stars in a binary system are close enough, some of that material may overflow to the other star, yielding phenomena including contact binaries , common-envelope binaries, cataclysmic variables , blue stragglers , and type Ia supernovae . Mass transfer leads to cases such as

8652-455: The same temperature. Less massive T Tauri stars follow this track to the main sequence, while more massive stars turn onto the Henyey track . Most stars are observed to be members of binary star systems, and the properties of those binaries are the result of the conditions in which they formed. A gas cloud must lose its angular momentum in order to collapse and form a star. The fragmentation of

8755-457: The seventh largest collection of photographs in the US (not including the federal government). The archives also include 110 radios, 60 televisions, 15,000 patents, 5000 books, and 1000 films. Many of the items relate to the history of Schenectady and General Electric . The archives are open to the public by appointment. The Dudley Observatory , now affiliated with Siena College , was affiliated with

8858-485: The star NGC 2547 -ID8 by the Spitzer Space Telescope , and confirmed by ground observations, suggests the involvement of large asteroids or protoplanets similar to the events believed to have led to the formation of terrestrial planets like the Earth. Based on observations of the Solar System's large collection of natural satellites, they are believed common components of planetary systems; however,

8961-634: The star loses mass, planets that are not engulfed move further out from the star. If an evolved star is in a binary or multiple system, then the mass it loses can transfer to another star, forming new protoplanetary disks and second- and third-generation planets which may differ in composition from the original planets, which may also be affected by the mass transfer. The Solar System consists of an inner region of small rocky planets and outer region of large giant planets . However, other planetary systems can have quite different architectures. Studies suggest that architectures of planetary systems are dependent on

9064-506: The star's outer layers, leaving a remnant such as the Crab Nebula. The core is compressed into a neutron star , which sometimes manifests itself as a pulsar or X-ray burster . In the case of the largest stars, the remnant is a black hole greater than 4  M ☉ . In a neutron star the matter is in a state known as neutron-degenerate matter , with a more exotic form of degenerate matter, QCD matter , possibly present in

9167-402: The stars and so can be recaptured. They are typically captured into wide orbits between 100 and 10 AU. The capture efficiency decreases with increasing cluster size, and for a given cluster size it increases with the host/primary mass. It is almost independent of the planetary mass. Single and multiple planets could be captured into arbitrary unaligned orbits, non-coplanar with each other or with

9270-426: The stellar host spin, or pre-existing planetary system. Some planet–host metallicity correlation may still exist due to the common origin of the stars from the same cluster. Planets would be unlikely to be captured around neutron stars because these are likely to be ejected from the cluster by a pulsar kick when they form. Planets could even be captured around other planets to form free-floating planet binaries. After

9373-400: The strength of its stellar wind. Older, population II stars have substantially less metallicity than the younger, population I stars due to the composition of the molecular clouds from which they formed. Over time, such clouds become increasingly enriched in heavier elements as older stars die and shed portions of their atmospheres . As stars of at least 0.4  M ☉ exhaust

9476-486: The supernova blast, leaving behind planet-sized bodies. Alternatively, planets may form in an accretion disk of fallback matter surrounding a pulsar. Fallback disks of matter that failed to escape orbit during a supernova may also form planets around black holes . As stars evolve and turn into red giants , asymptotic giant branch stars, and planetary nebulae they engulf the inner planets, evaporating or partially evaporating them depending on how massive they are. As

9579-485: The supply of hydrogen at their core, they start to fuse hydrogen in a shell surrounding the helium core. The outer layers of the star expand and cool greatly as they transition into a red giant . In some cases, they will fuse heavier elements at the core or in shells around the core. As the stars expand, they throw part of their mass, enriched with those heavier elements, into the interstellar environment, to be recycled later as new stars. In about 5 billion years, when

9682-468: The surface due to strong convection and intense mass loss, or from stripping of the outer layers. When helium is exhausted at the core of a massive star, the core contracts and the temperature and pressure rises enough to fuse carbon (see Carbon-burning process ). This process continues, with the successive stages being fueled by neon (see neon-burning process ), oxygen (see oxygen-burning process ), and silicon (see silicon-burning process ). Near

9785-458: The temperature increases sufficiently, core helium fusion begins explosively in what is called a helium flash , and the star rapidly shrinks in radius, increases its surface temperature, and moves to the horizontal branch of the HR diagram. For more massive stars, helium core fusion starts before the core becomes degenerate, and the star spends some time in the red clump , slowly burning helium, before

9888-400: The time of the ancient Greek astronomers Ptolemy and Hipparchus. William Herschel was the first astronomer to attempt to determine the distribution of stars in the sky. During the 1780s, he established a series of gauges in 600 directions and counted the stars observed along each line of sight. From this, he deduced that the number of stars steadily increased toward one side of the sky, in

9991-509: The water to evaporate and not too far away from the star for the water to freeze. The heat produced by stars varies depending on the size and age of the star; this means the habitable zone will also vary accordingly. Also, the atmospheric conditions on the planet influence the planet's ability to retain heat so that the location of the habitable zone is also specific to each type of planet. Habitable zones have usually been defined in terms of surface temperature; however, over half of Earth's biomass

10094-435: Was developed by Annie J. Cannon during the early 1900s. The first direct measurement of the distance to a star ( 61 Cygni at 11.4 light-years ) was made in 1838 by Friedrich Bessel using the parallax technique. Parallax measurements demonstrated the vast separation of the stars in the heavens. Observation of double stars gained increasing importance during the 19th century. In 1834, Friedrich Bessel observed changes in

10197-417: Was found in a four-day orbit around the nearby G-type star 51 Pegasi . The frequency of detections has increased since then, particularly through advancements in methods of detecting extrasolar planets and dedicated planet-finding programs such as the Kepler mission . Planetary systems come from protoplanetary disks that form around stars as part of the process of star formation . During formation of

10300-419: Was pioneered by Joseph von Fraunhofer and Angelo Secchi . By comparing the spectra of stars such as Sirius to the Sun, they found differences in the strength and number of their absorption lines —the dark lines in stellar spectra caused by the atmosphere's absorption of specific frequencies. In 1865, Secchi began classifying stars into spectral types . The modern version of the stellar classification scheme

10403-600: Was the SN 1006 supernova, which was observed in 1006 and written about by the Egyptian astronomer Ali ibn Ridwan and several Chinese astronomers. The SN 1054 supernova, which gave birth to the Crab Nebula , was also observed by Chinese and Islamic astronomers. Medieval Islamic astronomers gave Arabic names to many stars that are still used today and they invented numerous astronomical instruments that could compute

10506-614: Was the result of ancient Egyptian astronomy in 1534 BC. The earliest known star catalogues were compiled by the ancient Babylonian astronomers of Mesopotamia in the late 2nd millennium BC, during the Kassite Period ( c.  1531 BC  – c.  1155 BC ). The first star catalogue in Greek astronomy was created by Aristillus in approximately 300 BC, with the help of Timocharis . The star catalog of Hipparchus (2nd century BC) included 1,020 stars, and

10609-480: Was used to assemble Ptolemy 's star catalogue. Hipparchus is known for the discovery of the first recorded nova (new star). Many of the constellations and star names in use today derive from Greek astronomy. Despite the apparent immutability of the heavens, Chinese astronomers were aware that new stars could appear. In 185 AD, they were the first to observe and write about a supernova , now known as SN 185 . The brightest stellar event in recorded history

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