If the baby has grown to the age of "why" and bombards you with questions about why the stars shine, how far to the sun and what a comet is, it's time to introduce him to the basics of astronomy, help him understand the structure of the world around him, support research interest.
"If there was only one place on Earth from where one could see the stars, then people would flock there in droves to contemplate the wonders of the sky and admire them." (Seneca, 1st century AD) It is hard to disagree that in this sense, little has changed on earth for thousands of years.
The bottomlessness and immensity of the starry sky still inexplicably attracts the views of people,
fascinates, hypnotizes, fills the soul with quiet and gentle joy, a feeling of unity with the entire universe. And if even the adult imagination sometimes draws amazing pictures, then what can we say about our children, dreamers and inventors who live in fairy-tale worlds, fly in a dream and dream of space travel and meetings with an alien mind...
Where to begin?
Acquaintance with astronomy should not begin with the "big bang theory". It is sometimes difficult even for an adult to realize the infinity of the Universe, and even more so for a baby, for whom even his own home is still akin to the Universe. It is not necessary to buy a telescope right away. This is a unit for "advanced" young astronomers. In addition, many interesting observations can be made with the help of binoculars. And it’s better to start with buying a good book on astronomy for kids, with a visit to the children’s program at the planetarium, the space museum and, of course, with interesting and intelligible stories from mom and dad about planets and stars.
Tell your child that our Earth is a huge ball on which there was a place for rivers, mountains, forests, deserts, and, of course, all of us, its inhabitants. Our Earth and everything that surrounds it is called the Universe or space. Space is very large, and no matter how much we fly in a rocket, we will never be able to get to its edge. In addition to our Earth, there are other planets, as well as stars. Stars are huge luminous fireballs. The sun is also a star. It is located close to the Earth, and therefore we see its light and feel heat. There are stars many times larger and hotter than the Sun, but they shine so far from the Earth that they seem to us just small dots in the night sky. Often kids ask why the stars are not visible during the day. Compare with your child the light of a flashlight during the day and in the evening in the dark. In the daytime, in bright light, the beam of the flashlight is almost invisible, but it shines brightly in the evening. The light of the stars is like the light of a lantern: during the day it is outshone by the sun. Therefore, the stars can only be seen at night.
In addition to our Earth, 8 more planets circle the Sun, many small asteroids and comets. All these celestial bodies form the solar system, the center of which is the sun. Each planet has its own path, which is called an orbit. To remember the names and order of the planets, the baby will help "Astronomical rhyme" by A. Usachev:
An astrologer lived on the moon, He counted the planets. Mercury - one, Venus - two, three - Earth, four - Mars. Five - Jupiter, six - Saturn, Seven - Uranus, eighth - Neptune, Nine - farthest - Pluto. Who does not see - get out.
Tell your child that all the planets in the solar system vary greatly in size. If you imagine that the largest of them, Jupiter, is the size of a large watermelon, then the smallest planet, Pluto, will look like a pea. All planets in the solar system, except for Mercury and Venus, have satellites. Our Earth also has it...
mysterious moon
Even a one and a half year old toddler is already enthusiastically looking at the moon in the sky. And for a grown-up kid, this satellite of the Earth can become an interesting object of study. After all, the Moon is so different and is constantly changing from a barely noticeable "sickle" to a round bright beauty. Tell the baby, and even better, demonstrate with the help of a globe, a small ball (this will be the Moon) and a flashlight (this will be the Sun), how the Moon revolves around the Earth and how it is illuminated by the Sun.
In order to better understand and remember the phases of the moon, start an observation diary with your baby, where every day you will sketch the moon as it is visible in the sky. If on some days clouds interfere with your observations, it does not matter. Still, such a diary will be an excellent visual aid. And to determine whether the moon is waxing or waning in front of you is very simple. If her sickle looks like the letter "C" - she is old, if the letter "R" without a stick - growing.
Of course, the baby will be interested to know what is on the moon. Tell him that the surface of the moon is covered with craters caused by asteroid impacts. If you look at the Moon with binoculars (it is better to install it on a photo tripod), then you can notice the unevenness of its relief and even craters. The moon has no atmosphere, so it is not protected from asteroids. But the Earth is protected. If a stone shard enters its atmosphere, it immediately burns up. Although sometimes asteroids are so fast that they still have time to fly to the surface of the Earth. Such asteroids are called meteorites.
Star riddles
While relaxing with your grandmother in the village or in the country, devote a few evenings to stargazing. There is nothing to worry about if the child breaks the usual routine a little and goes to bed later. But how many unforgettable minutes he will spend with his mom or dad under a huge starry sky, peering into the shimmering mysterious points. August is the best month for such observations. The evenings are quite dark, the air is transparent and it seems that you can reach the sky with your hands. In August, it is easy to see an interesting phenomenon, which is called a "shooting star". Of course, in fact, this is not a star at all, but a burning meteor. But still very beautiful. Our distant ancestors looked at the sky in the same way, guessing various animals, objects, people, mythological heroes in the clusters of stars. Many constellations bear their names from time immemorial. Teach your child to find a particular constellation in the sky. Such an activity awakens imagination in the best possible way and develops abstract thinking. If you yourself are not very good at navigating the constellations, it does not matter. Almost all children's books on astronomy have a map of the starry sky and descriptions of the constellations. In total, 88 constellations have been identified on the celestial sphere, 12 of which are zodiacal. The stars in the constellations are designated by letters of the Latin alphabet, and the brightest ones have their own names (for example, the star Altair in the constellation Eagle). To make it easier for a child to see this or that constellation in the sky, it makes sense to first carefully examine it in the picture, and then draw or lay it out of cardboard stars. You can make constellations on the ceiling using special luminous star stickers. Once having found a constellation in the sky, the child will never forget it.
Different peoples of the same constellation could be called differently. It all depended on what their fantasy suggested to people. So, the well-known Ursa Major was depicted both as a ladle and as a horse on a leash. Amazing legends are associated with many constellations. It would be great if mom or dad would read some of them in advance, and then retell them to the baby, peering into the luminous dots with him and trying to see the legendary creatures. The ancient Greeks, for example, had such a legend about the constellations Ursa Major and Ursa Minor. The almighty god Zeus fell in love with the beautiful nymph Callisto. The wife of Zeus Hera, having learned about this, was terribly angry and turned Callisto and her friend into a she-bear. The son of Callisto Araks met two bears during a hunt and wanted to kill them. But Zeus prevented this by throwing Callisto and her friend into the sky and turning them into bright constellations. And, throwing, Zeus held the bears by the tails. Here are the tails and have become long. And here is another beautiful legend about several constellations at once. A long time ago, Cepheus lived in Ethiopia. His wife was the beautiful Cassiopeia. They had a daughter, the beautiful princess Andromeda. She grew up and became the most beautiful girl in Ethiopia. Cassiopeia was so proud of her daughter's beauty that she began to compare her with goddesses. The gods were angry and sent a terrible misfortune to Ethiopia. Every day a monstrous whale swam out of the sea, and the most beautiful girl was given to him to be eaten. The turn of the beautiful Andromeda has come. No matter how Cepheus begged the gods to spare his daughter, the gods remained adamant. Andromeda was chained to a rock by the sea. But at this time, the hero Perseus flew past in winged sandals. He had just accomplished the feat of killing the dreaded Medusa Gorgon. Instead of hair, snakes moved on her head, and one look from her turned all living things into stone. Perseus saw a poor girl and a terrible monster, pulled out the severed head of Medusa from the bag and showed it to the whale. The whale was petrified, and Perseus freed Andromeda. Delighted, Cepheus gave Andromeda as his wife to Perseus. And the gods liked this story so much that they turned all its heroes into bright stars and placed them in the sky. Since then, you can find there: Cassiopeia, and Cepheus, and Perseus, and Andromeda. And the whale became an island off the coast of Ethiopia.
It is not difficult to find the Milky Way in the sky. It is clearly visible to the naked eye. Tell your child that the Milky Way (namely, this is the name of our galaxy) is a large cluster of stars that looks like a luminous strip of white dots in the sky and resembles a path from milk. The ancient Romans attributed the origin of the Milky Way to the sky goddess Juno. When she was breastfeeding Hercules, a few drops fell and, turning into stars, formed the Milky Way in the sky ...
Choosing a telescope
If a child is seriously interested in astronomy, it makes sense to purchase a telescope for him. True, a good telescope is not cheap. But even inexpensive models of children's telescopes will allow a young astronomer to observe many celestial objects and make his first astronomical discoveries. Mom and dad should remember that even the simplest telescope is a rather complicated thing for a preschooler. Therefore, firstly, the child can not do without your active help. And, secondly, the simpler the telescope, the easier it will be for the baby to manage it. If in the future the child becomes seriously interested in astronomy, it will be possible to purchase a more powerful telescope.
So, what is a telescope and what to look for when choosing one? The principle of operation of the telescope is not based on the magnification of the object, as many people think. It is more correct to say that the telescope does not enlarge, but brings the object closer. The main task of the telescope is to create an image of a distant object close to the observer and allow details to be distinguished; not accessible to the naked eye; The second task is to collect as much light as possible from a distant object and transmit it to our eye. So, the larger the lens, the more light the telescope collects and the better the detail of the objects in question will be.
All telescopes are divided into three optical classes. Refractors(refracting telescopes) a large objective lens is used as a light-collecting element. AT reflex(reflecting) telescopes, concave mirrors play the role of an objective. The most common and easiest to manufacture reflector is made according to the Newton optical scheme (named after Isaac Newton, who first put it into practice). Often these telescopes are called "Newton". Mirror lens Telescopes use both lenses and mirrors at the same time. Due to this, they allow you to achieve excellent image quality with high resolution. Most children's telescopes that you will find in stores are refractors.
An important parameter to pay attention to is lens diameter(aperture). It determines the light gathering power of the telescope and the range of possible magnifications. It is measured in millimeters, centimeters or inches (for example, 4.5 inches is 114 mm). The larger the diameter of the lens, the more "weak" stars can be seen through a telescope. The second important feature is focal length. The aperture ratio of the telescope depends on it (as in amateur astronomy they call the ratio of the diameter of the lens to its focal length). Pay attention also to eyepiece. If the main optic (objective lens, mirror or system of lenses and mirrors) serves to form an image, then the purpose of the eyepiece is to magnify this image. Eyepieces come in different diameters and focal lengths. Changing the eyepiece will also change the magnification of the telescope. To calculate the magnification, you need to divide the focal length of the telescope objective (say, 900 mm) by the focal length of the eyepiece (for example, 20 mm). We get a magnification of 45 times. This is quite enough for a novice young astronomer to consider the Moon, star clusters and a lot of other interesting things. The telescope kit may include a Barlow lens. It is installed in front of the eyepiece, which increases the magnification of the telescope. In simple telescopes, the double barlow lens. It allows you to double the magnification of the telescope. In our case, the increase will be 90 times.
The telescopes come with many useful accessories. They can be included with the telescope or ordered separately. For example, most telescopes are equipped with viewfinders. This is a small telescope with a low magnification and a large field of view, which makes it easy to find the desired objects of observation. The viewfinder and telescope are directed parallel to each other. First, the object is determined in the viewfinder, and only then in the field of the main telescope. Almost all refractors are equipped with diagonal mirror or prism. This device facilitates observations if the object is directly above the astronomer's head. If, in addition to celestial objects, you are going to observe terrestrial objects, you cannot do without rectifying prism. The fact is that all telescopes receive an image turned upside down and mirrored. When observing celestial bodies, this does not really matter. But to see earthly objects is still better in the correct position.
Any telescope has a mount - a mechanical device for attaching the telescope to a tripod and aiming at an object. It can be azimuth or equatorial. The azimuth mount allows you to move the telescope in the horizontal direction (left-right) and vertical (up-down). This mount is suitable for observing both terrestrial and celestial objects and is most often installed in telescopes for novice astronomers. Another type of mount, equatorial, is arranged differently. During long-term astronomical observations, due to the rotation of the earth, objects shift. Thanks to a special design, the equatorial mount allows the telescope to follow the curved path of the star across the sky. Sometimes such a telescope is equipped with a special motor that controls the movement automatically. A telescope on an equatorial mount is more suitable for long-term astronomical observations and photography. And finally, this whole device is mounted on tripod. Most often it is metal, less often - wooden. It is better if the legs of the tripod are not fixed, but retractable.
How to work
Seeing something through a telescope is not such an easy task for a beginner as it might seem at first glance. You need to know what to look for. This time. You need to know where to look. This is two. And, of course, know how to search. It's three. Let's start from the end and try to figure out the basic rules for handling a telescope. Don't worry about the fact that you yourself are not very good at astronomy (or even not at all). Finding the right literature is not a problem. But how interesting it will be for both you and the child to discover this difficult, but such an exciting science together.
So, before you start searching for any object in the sky, you need to set up a viewfinder with a telescope. This procedure requires some skill. Do it better during the day. Select a fixed, easily recognizable ground object at a distance of 500 meters to one kilometer. Point the telescope at it so that the object is in the center of the eyepiece. Fix the telescope so that it is stationary. Now look through the viewfinder. If the selected subject is not visible, loosen the viewfinder adjustment bolt and rotate the viewfinder itself until the subject appears in the field of view. Then, use the adjustment screws (viewfinder fine adjustment screws) to ensure that the object is exactly in the center of the eyepiece. Now look through the telescope again. If the object is still in the center - everything is in order. The telescope is ready to go. If not, repeat the setting.
As you know, it is better to look through a telescope in a dark tower somewhere high in the mountains. Of course, we are unlikely to go to the mountains. But, undoubtedly, it is better to watch the stars outside the city (for example, in the country) than from the window of a city apartment. There is too much extra light and heat waves in the city, which will degrade the image. The farther away from urban illumination you make observations, the more celestial objects you will be able to see. It is clear that the sky should be as clear as possible.
First find the subject in the viewfinder. Then adjust the focus of the telescope - turn the focus screw until the image is clear. If you have multiple eyepieces, start with the lowest magnification. Due to the very fine tuning of the telescope, you need to look into it carefully, without making sudden movements and with bated breath. Otherwise, the setting can easily go astray. Teach your child right away. By the way, such observations will train endurance, and for overly active smart people they will become a kind of psychotherapeutic procedure. It is difficult to find a better soothing remedy than watching the endless starry sky.
Depending on the model of the telescope, several hundred different celestial objects can be viewed through it. These are planets, stars, galaxies, asteroids, comets.
asteroids(minor planets) are large pieces of rock, sometimes containing metal. Most asteroids orbit the Sun between Mars and Jupiter.
Comets- These are celestial bodies that have a core and a luminous tail. So that the baby can imagine this "tailed wanderer" at least a little, tell her that she looks like a huge snowball mixed with cosmic dust. In a telescope, comets appear as hazy spots, sometimes with a light tail. The tail is always turned away from the Sun.
Moon. Even with the simplest telescope, you can clearly see craters, crevices, mountain ranges and dark seas. It is best to observe the moon not during the full moon, but during one of its phases. At this time, you can see much more details, especially at the border of light and shadow.
planets. In any telescope, you can see all the planets of the Solar System, except for the most distant - Pluto (it is visible only in powerful telescopes). Mercury and Venus, as well as the Moon, have phases when they are visible through a telescope. On Jupiter, you can see dark and light bands (which are belts of clouds) and a giant whirlwind of the Great Red Spot. Due to the planet's rapid rotation appearance constantly changing. Jupiter's four helium moons are clearly visible. On the mysterious red planet Mars, with a good telescope, you can see the white ice caps at the poles. The famous ring of Saturn, which children love to look at in pictures, is also perfectly visible through a telescope. This is an amazing picture. The largest moon of Saturn, Titan, is usually clearly visible. And in more powerful telescopes, you can see the gap in the rings (Cassini gap) and the shadow that the rings cast on the planet. Uranus and Neptune will be visible as small dots, and in more powerful telescopes as disks.
Between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter, many asteroids can be observed. Sometimes comets come across.
star clusters. Throughout our galaxy, there are many star clusters, which are divided into scattered (a significant cluster of stars in some part of the sky) and globular (a dense group of stars that has the shape of a ball). For example, the Pleiades constellation (seven small stars pressed against each other), clearly visible to the naked eye, turns into a sparkling field of hundreds of stars in the eyepiece of even the simplest telescope.
Nebulae. Scattered throughout our galaxy are clusters of gas. This is what nebulae are. Usually they are illuminated by neighboring stars and are a very beautiful sight.
galaxies. These are huge clusters of billions of stars, separate "islands" of the Universe. The brightest galaxy in the night sky is the Andromeda Galaxy. Without a telescope, it looks like a faint blur. A large elliptical luminous field can be seen through a telescope. And in a more powerful telescope, the structure of the galaxy is visible.
Sun. It is strictly forbidden to look at the Sun through a telescope, unless it is equipped with special solar filters. Explain this to your child first. This will damage the telescope. But this is half the trouble. There is one sad aphorism that you can look at the Sun through a telescope only twice in your life: once with your right eye, the second time with your left. Such experiments can indeed lead to loss of vision. And it is better not to leave the telescope assembled in the daytime, so as not to tempt the little astronomer.
In addition to astronomical observations, most telescopes allow you to observe terrestrial objects, which can also be very interesting. But, much more important, not so much the observations themselves, but the joint passion of the baby and parents, common interests that make the friendship between the child and the adult stronger, fuller and more interesting.
Clear skies and amazing astronomical discoveries!
> > why the stars shine
Why do the stars glow in the sky- a description for children: why they glow brightly at night in different colors, what they are made of, surface temperature, size and age.
Let's talk about why the stars shine in a language accessible to children. This information will be useful to children and their parents.
Children admire the night sky and see billions of bright lights. Agree that there is nothing more beautiful than a shining star. Of course it's worth explain to children that their number and level of brightness depends on where you live. In cities, it is more difficult to spot bright stars due to artificial lighting that blocks the light. For the little ones it should be noted that the stars are suns like ours. If you were transported to another galaxy and looked at our Sun, it would resemble a familiar light.
To make it clear explanation for children, parents or teachers at school should tell about the composition of the stars. In simple terms, it is a round luminous plasma. It is so hot that it is even difficult for us to imagine this temperature. The surface of a star like our Sun is cooler (5800 Kelvin) than its core (15 million Kelvin).
They have their own gravity and emit some of the heat into space. differ in size. Children must remember that the larger its size, the less it exists. Ours is medium in size and has lived for millions of years.
The heat replenishment process involves fusion. Energy accumulates inside the sun for millions of years, but it is unstable and constantly trying to escape. As soon as she manages to rise to the surface, she escapes into outer space in the form of the solar wind.
It is also worth remembering the role of the speed of light. He moves until he hits an obstacle. When we see the stars, it is light located at a great distance. We can even observe a beam sent millions of years ago by a shining star. Need explain to children that this is an important point, because he had to overcome many obstacles to break through to us.
So when you look at the shining stars, you literally see the past. If we could get there, we would notice that everything had changed a long time ago. Moreover, some could even die, become a white dwarf or a supernova.
So the stars shine because it is an energy source that has a huge red-hot core that releases energy into the Universe in the form of a light beam. Now you understand why the stars shine. Use our photos, videos, drawings and moving models online to better understand the description and characteristics of space objects.
Hello, my dear!
Recently, many letters with interesting questions have come from inquisitive guys. And these questions, (to put it bluntly, on the most diverse topics), can certainly become topics for the meetings of our scientific society Sovinform.
So, let's try to find the answer to Nastya's question - "Why are the stars burning?"
First of all, let's answer: what is a star? As they say astronomers(that is, people who study celestial bodies), star is a celestial body, like our planet. But it consists of hydrogen gas, which turns into helium inside the star and, in doing so, emits energy in the form of light and other invisible rays.
A star differs from a planet in that it emits its own light. The planets only reflect "alien" light, as, for example, the Earth and Venus reflect the light of the Sun, which is also a star.
If you carefully observe the starry sky, you will notice that the stars not only burn, but also twinkle. This fact also has a scientific explanation. Our Earth, like a large cloud, envelops the atmosphere. The rays of light that go from the stars to the Earth are distorted by the air currents flowing in the atmosphere. The unstable air deflects the beam of light from the star, making it appear to tremble. That's why the stars twinkle!
star facts
- The brightest star in the night sky is Sirius. It can be observed from any region of the Earth, except for its northernmost regions.
- The closest star to the Sun - Proxima Centauri - is located at a distance of 40678 billion km from the Earth.
- Every 18 days, a new star appears in our galaxy. That means 20 stars are born a year!
In ancient times, people thought that the stars were the souls of people, the living ones or the nails that held up the sky. They came up with many explanations for why the stars glow at night, and the Sun was long considered a completely different object from the stars.
The problem of thermal reactions occurring in stars in general and on the Sun, the closest star to us, in particular, has long been of concern to scientists in many areas of science. Physicists, chemists, astronomers tried to figure out what leads to the release of thermal energy, accompanied by powerful radiation.
Scientists-chemists believed that exothermic chemical reactions occur in stars, as a result, a large amount of heat is released. Physicists did not agree that reactions between substances take place in these cosmic objects, since no reactions could produce so much light over billions of years.
When Mendeleev published his famous table, a new era began in the study of chemical reactions - radioactive elements were found and soon it was the reactions of radioactive decay that were the main cause of the radiation of stars.
The controversy stopped for a while, as almost all scientists recognized this theory as the most suitable.
Modern theory about the radiation of stars
In 1903, the already established idea of why stars shine and radiate heat was overturned by the Swedish scientist Svante Arrhenius, who introduced the theory of electrolytic dissociation. According to his theory, the source of energy in stars is hydrogen atoms, which combine with each other and form heavier helium nuclei. These processes are caused by strong gas pressure, high density and temperature (about fifteen million degrees Celsius) and occur in the inner regions of the star. This hypothesis began to be studied by other scientists, who came to the conclusion that such a fusion reaction is enough to release the colossal amount of energy that stars produce. It is also likely that the fusion of hydrogen would allow stars to shine for several billion years.
In some stars, helium fusion has ended, but they continue to shine as long as there is enough energy.
The energy released in the interior of stars is transferred to the outer regions of the gas, to the surface of the star, from where it begins to radiate in the form of light. Scientists believe that rays of light travel from the cores of stars to the surface for long tens or even hundreds of thousands of years. After that, the radiation gets to the Earth, which also requires a lot of time. So, the radiation of the Sun reaches our planet in eight minutes, the light of the second closest star, Proxima Centrauri, reaches us in more than four years, and the light of many stars that can be seen with the naked eye has traveled several thousand or even millions of years.
The question of why the stars shine belongs to the category of children, but, nevertheless, it confuses a good half of adults who either forgot the school course in physics and astronomy, or skipped a lot in childhood.
Explanation of the glow of stars
Stars are inherently gas balls, therefore, they emit light in the course of their existence and the chemical processes taking place in them. Unlike the moon, which simply reflects the light of the sun, stars, like our sun, glow on their own. If we talk about our sun, it is a medium in size, as well as in age, a star. As a rule, those stars that visually appear larger in the sky are closer, those that are barely visible are further away. There are millions more that are not visible to the naked eye at all. People got acquainted with them when the first telescope was invented.
The star, although it is not alive, has its own life cycle, therefore, at its different stages, it has a different ...
Stars are huge balls of gas that radiate heat and light as a result of thermonuclear reactions. Our Sun is an average yellow star.
Stars form from large clouds of gas and dust called nebulae. The force of gravity causes these clouds to compress into a dense mass. In the center of the cloud, it contracts, the gas gradually condenses and heats up. When the temperature gets too high, a thermonuclear reaction, or fusion reaction, begins, in which the nuclei of hydrogen atoms fuse to form helium nuclei. This is how a new star is born.
star heat
In the center of the star, where the thermonuclear reaction takes place, the temperature reaches over 10 million degrees. Astronomers classify stars by their temperature. Depending on the temperature, the color of the star changes: for a red dwarf it is only 3000 °C, and for a blue supergiant it is 20,000 °C. Stars also differ in brightness, which is why a more distant star can stand out closer than a less distant one, but ...
STARS are huge balls of gas that emit their own light, in contrast to the planets and their satellites, which glow by the reflected light of stars.
For example, moonlight is nothing but sunlight reflected by the moon.
Another difference is that it seems to us that the STARS twinkle, while the light of the planets is even and unblinking. The twinkling of stars is caused by the presence of various substances in the earth's atmosphere.
Since the time of the ancient Greek astronomers, STARS have been divided into groups according to their magnitude. The concept of "magnitude" here does not mean the true size of the stars, but their brightness.
In addition, stars differ in their SPECTRA, or, in other words, in the wavelengths of their radiation. By studying the spectrum of a star, astronomers learn a lot about its features, temperature, and even chemical composition.
Thus, STARS, similar to our SUN, illuminate the Universe around them, warm the planets surrounding them, give life. Why do they only glow at night?
A cloudless night outside. As soon as we raise our heads to the sky, we can see a huge number of tiny luminous dust particles located somewhere very far away. These are stars, which are many or few - it all depends on the weather and the location of the person.
In the distant past, humanity did not know what stars were at all, and therefore invented various fables. For example, there was an opinion that these are nails containing the souls of dead people, with which the sky is nailed. But the assumption that the sun is also a star did not exist for a long time. And really, how can this huge bright canvas, reminiscent of a hot frying pan, be associated with tiny dots above our heads?
It is simply impossible to calculate the exact number of stars. Meanwhile, it is known that there are a lot of them - millions or even billions. It is interesting that they are located at a great distance from the Earth, which is sometimes impossible to pass even in a whole human life. The light from these...
Why do the stars shine?
Each of us, at least once in our lives, raised our heads on a quiet, cloudless night and saw countless tiny fireflies above our heads that adorned the sky. Depending on the position of the observer and the weather, the stars may appear larger or smaller. But what is a star and why does it shine?
In Antiquity, there were countless hypotheses about what stars are and why they glow. The stars were called the nails with which the sky is nailed, living beings, the souls of people. The list of all possible variations can be very long. Few people thought that our Sun is a star. A huge ball, bursting with heat, was not associated with our ancestors in any way with small silver stars.
In fact, the Sun is the most common star, there are many such stars even in our galaxy. The entire starry sky is a myriad of analogues of the Sun, which are located at unimaginable distances from the Earth....
"Question Mark" 5/91
How does a time machine work?
ZIGUNENKO Stanislav Nikolaevich
Paradoxes of our days
Why do the stars glow
N. A. Kozyrev was an astronomer. And it is natural that he began to pick up the keys to world laws not on Earth, but in the Universe. In 1953, he came to the paradoxical conclusion that there is no source of energy in stars at all. Stars live, radiating heat and light, due to the arrival of energies from outside.
It must be said that Nikolai Alexandrovich had his own reasons for such a judgment. Back in 1850, the German physicist R. Clasius formulated a postulate, which was later called the second law of thermodynamics. This is how * it sounds: "Heat cannot by itself pass from a colder body to a warmer one."
The statement seems to be self-evident: everyone has seen how, say, the switched off iron gradually becomes more and more ...
Who does not like to admire the most beautiful view of the starry sky at night, look at thousands of bright and not very stars. About why the stars shine, our article will tell.
Stars are cosmic objects that emit a huge amount of heat energy. Such a large release of heat energy, of course, is accompanied by strong light radiation. The light that has reached us, we can observe.
When you look at the starry sky, you will notice that most of the stars are different. Some stars shine with the past, others with blue light. There are also stars that shine orange. Stars are large balls of very hot gases. Since they are heated differently, they have a different glow color. So, the hottest ones shine with blue light. Stars that are slightly colder are white. Even colder stars shine yellow. Then come the "orange" and "red" stars.
It seems to us that the stars twinkle with an unstable light, and the planets shine unblinking and ...
