why aren't stars "stars"?

Question

Why are the stars in space shaped like sphere's and not the pointed shape we say they are on Earth?

Answer 1

The actual stars are round because of gravitation. Imagine a ball of water the size of the Earth. Just like the ocean, it would tend to fall downhill to the lowest level, except for waves. Stars are like that, only their fluid is hot hydrogen gas. So they become a ball because the force of gravity makes the fluid all run "downhill".

The stars we see at night were often drawn as pointed because of people with bad eyesight. Notice how if you squint, the stars appear spiky? And that is the explanation for why the stars are round, but we often draw them as pointed.

Answer 2

The pointed shape most likely refers to the light glare that comes off of the sides.

Also its just not as great a symbol if they were little glowing spheres. Kind of Like the heart, how its always double rounded on top and nice and pointy at the bottom, have you ever seen a real heart, they are very far from the commericial image.

Answer 3

Because of atmospheric disturbance on Earth. The air distorts the light coming in, so they seem to twinkle (if you viewed them from outer space, they'd appear round).

Plus in nature, at least when it comes to stars and other planetary bodies, sphere is the best overall shape for them to have and still be stable.

Answer 4

Because they are spheres. The pointy symbols we use are a representation of the twinkling effect seen by the human eye through the earth's atmosphere. They aren't really pointy.

Answer 5

Everything we see is just our brain's translation of the light input to our eyes. If you look closely, you can see that the stars in the sky don't look perfectly round. They do actually look a little distorted. This is because the light has travelled thousands of millions of miles to get to Earth, and there's other stuff inbetween here and there that has distorted the light. Thus, what we see is not exactly round.

Answer 6

I think its because society has painted this illusion on what a star should look like! Like a heart is shaped the way we think rather than what the organ look like in a human body! Its all pin the perception of ones out look is!

Answer 7

Simply put, the "stars" we show as representations here on Earth are idealized concepts based upon our early perceptions of the "twinkling" effect they have when viewed through our atmosphere.

In reality, stars are indeed giant balls of gasses and other, heavier, elements which - thanks to gravity - form a spherical shape.

Answer 8

Gravity holds them in a roughly spherical shape.

Our star symbols are supposed to respresent the flickering of stars.

Answer 9

easy it was til scientist proved otherwise so dats y no1 believes its not the pointed shape like wat we use here on earth...its also kinda like how a heart aint really shaped the way we draw it...cuz scientist again have to go prove otherwise...same thing wid santa claus they always mess up ur traditions and beliefs

Answer 10

they are pieces of rock not spheres. so they are jagged but they are not the 5 pointed we see in art. so i don't know.