what is a star?

Question

i told my dad it was like a small sun but he says its a planet! anyone know!

Answer 1

Hey cutie pie, I think your dad was putting you on. I'm sure you'll get plenty of explanations of what a star is. But, since I'm answering your question, I will echo the correct answers: A star is mostly hydrogen gas. Our sun is a star. A great ball of hydrogen gas almost a million kilometers (700,000 miles) in diameter. Such a huge mass of hydrogen has "weight" and that weight tends to bear down on the sun's center (core), creating a lot of pressure in the core. Pressure = temperature. So the higher the pressure, the higher the temperature. When the temperature gets to about 10 million degrees, nuclear fusion of hydrogen atoms is possible, making helium atoms out of the hydrogen atoms and releasing a great amount of energy in the process. Without the sun's light and energy, we would not exist. Our sun is but one star in our galaxy composed of about 100 billion stars. Our next door neighbor galaxy, the Andromeda Galaxy, contains about 200 billion stars. There are billions, if not trillions of galaxies, in our universe (maybe more, but we can't see them, they're too far away).

Answer 2

A star is a massive, compact body of plasma in outer space that is currently producing or has produced energy through nuclear fusion. The most familiar and closest star to the Earth is the Sun. Unlike a planet, from which most light is reflected, a star emits light because of its intense heat

Answer 3

a star is a flaming ball of gas which uses nuclear fusion to produce extreme energy, releasing lot of heat. Most of its energy comes from fusing hydrogens together to make helium, but other fusions of atoms occur as well. Essentially, all elements originate through the fusion of atoms that occur in the star.

Stars vary in size. The sun is a medium sized star. There are many much more bigger and many much smaller than the sun. However, STARS ARE DEFINETLEY NOT PLANETS. they do not revolve around anything, rather they are the central mass that planets revolve against.

Answer 4

Stars are bodies of hot burning gas that are born in a nebulae. They vary enormously in size, mass, and temperature: diameters range from about 450time smalled over 1,000 times bigger than that of the Sun; masses range from twinthieth to over 50 solar masses; and surface temperature range from about 3,000 degree C to over 50,000 degree C. The color of the star is determined by it's temperature: the hottest star are blue and the coolest are red. The Sun with the surface temeprature of 5,500 degree C, is between these extremes and appeares yellow. The energy emitted by a shining star is produced by the nuclear fusion in the star's core. The brightness of a star is measured in magnitudes-the brighter the star, the lower the magnitude. There are two types of magnitudes: appearent magnitude, which is the brightness seen form the earth, and absolute magnitude, which is the brightness that would be seen from a standard distance of 10 parsecs (32.6 light years).
The light emitted by a star may be split to form a spectrum containing a seried of dark lines (absorption lines). The patterns of lines indicate the presence of particular chemical elements, enabling astronomers to deduce the composition of the star's atmosphere. The magnitude and spectral type (color) of strs may be plotted on a graph called a Hertzsprung-Russell diagram, which shows that stars tend to fall into several well difined groups. The principal groups are main sequence star (thosw hich are fusing hydrogen form helium), giants, supergiants, and white dwarfs.

Answer 5

Tell your dad he is dead wrong. A Star is Burning Ball of Gases such as Hydrogen, Helium, and others. No Life at all can survive on the Surface of a Star, You would be incenerated before you even reached the surface and if the Heat did not kill you the Light would make you Blind and the radiation would kill you.

Answer 6

Stars are hot bodies of glowing gas that start their life in Nebulae. They vary in size, mass and temperature, diameters ranging from 450x smaller to over 1000x larger than that of the Sun. Masses range from a twentieth to over 50 solar masses and surface temperature can range from 3,000 degrees Celcius to over 50,000 degrees Celcius.

The colour of a star is determined by its temperature, the hottest stars are blue and the coolest stars are red. The Sun has a surface temperature of 5,500 degrees Celcius, its colour appears yellow.

The energy produced by the star is by nuclear fusion in the stars core. The brightness is measured in magnitude, the brighter the star the lower the magnitude goes down. There are two ways to measuring the brightness of a star, apparent magnitude is the brghtness seen from Earth, and absolute magnitude which is the brightness of a star seen from a standard distance of 10 parsecs (32.6 light years).

Answer 7

You were right. Our Sun is a star. Earth is a planet.

Stars are massive spheres of burning gases (hydrogen).

Planets are the cooler objects that orbit the star.

Answer 8

both,
the specks of light in the sky at night are mostly starts but some are neighboring planets.
stars are really just the same thing as our sun most of which are like 100x bigger then the our sun, they are just so far away that they look small, they are millions of light years away so the light you see from them was actually made millions of years ago and it is finally getting to us.

some of the specks of light you see are planets, neighboring planets' atmosphere reflect the suns light back at us, some planets you can see are Mars and Venus.

Answer 9

Its a ball of igneous gas of hyrogen atoms fusing together to create helium and releases nuclear energy

Answer 10

ionized gas forming nuclear fusion