Understanding Stars: Celestial Bodies and Their Characteristics

KOMPAS.com – Stars are celestial bodies that are capable of emitting light and producing their own energy.

Quoted from the page Britannica, Stars are massive celestial bodies made of gas and shine through radiation originating from their internal energy sources.

Of the many stars that make up the universe, only a small fraction can be seen with the naked eye.

Many stars appear in pairs, in many systems, or star clusters. The members of such star groups are physically related through a common origin and bound by mutual gravitational attraction.

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According to the page NASA, stars are born inside dust clouds and are scattered throughout most of the galaxy. A common example of a dust cloud is the Orion Nebula.

Turbulence deep within these clouds creates knots with enough mass that the gas and dust can collapse under their own gravitational pull.

As the cloud collapses, the material in the center begins to heat up, known as a protostar. And it is this hot core at the heart of the collapsing cloud that will one day become a star.

So far, red dwarf stars (red dwarfs) is the most common in the Milky Way galaxy, although it is very small and faint.

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10 nearest stars from earth

Wikimedia/NASA/Penn State University Illustration of the stars closest to the sun.

Technically, the closest star to Earth is the Sun. However, in case it wasn’t included in the list, here are the 10 closest stars to Earth:

1. Proxima Centauri

Reported from the page Astronomy, Proxima Centauri is the closest star at a distance of about 4.25 light years.

Despite being the closest to Earth, Proxima Centauri’s light is too faint to see with the naked eye.

Proxima Centauri is a red dwarf star, the most common type of star in the Milky Way. It emits less energy than the Sun and is smaller in size.

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2. Alpha Centauri A and B

Proxima Centauri is not a solo star, but an alien star in a three-star system. The binary satellites are the two stars Alpha Centauri A and B.

The two stars orbit their center of gravity every 80 years. The distance is about 4.35 light years from Earth and the distance between them is about 23 times the distance between the Sun and Earth.

3. Barnard’s Star

Barnard’s Star is about 6 light years away in Ophiuchus, which is red dwarfs which is a bit small. This star was discovered by American astronomer Edward Emerson Barnard.

Like Proxima Centauri, Barnard’s Star is a beacon star. It is several billion years old and its radius is one-fifth that of the Sun.

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4. Wolf 359

The star Wolf 359 is a red dwarf star in the constellation Leo, located about 7.9 light years from planet Earth.

This star is one of the smallest stars known, closer in diameter to Jupiter than the Sun.

Wolf 359 was first identified by German astronomer Max Wolf, in his catalog of more than 1,000 fast-moving stars.

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5. Lalande 21185

Lalande 21185 is one of the brightest red dwarf stars close to Earth, but it is still too faint to see with the naked eye.

This star is 8 light years away, measuring less than half the diameter and mass of the Sun. Lalande 21185 can be found in the southern part of Ursa Major.

This star, also known as Gliese 411, was discovered by French astronomer Jerrme Lalande, around the 18th century.

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2023-11-07 09:15:00
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