Stars

table of contents

• How long can a star live?................4
• Can stars change color?..................5
• What is the biggest type of star?......6
• Do stars make big explosions?..........7
• Why are some stars bright and others dim? ..............8

table of contents

• Why do stars twinkle?................9
• What state of matter are stars made of?.............10
• ( If a word has this * behind it it is in the glossary.)

how long can a star live?

• How long a star lives depends on it's size. The 
• smaller they are the longer they live. A star that 
• is like our sun will live for about 10 billion years. 
•  A star that weighs twenty times as much as our 
• sun will live for about 10 million years.

Can stars change colors?

• Yes, they can change color but not that often.
• They have different colors because of their 
• temperature, so if their temperature changes so 
• will their color. A star like our sun will change color
• in about 50 million years. (Until they become adults.) 

What is the biggest type of star?

• A  red super giant is. A red super giant is a star 
•  that is at the end of it's life. If our sun was replaced 
• with a red super giant it would swallow up anything in  
•  it's path all the way to Jupiter or maybe even past it.  

what is the hottest TYPE of star?

• The hottest type of star is a blue star, believe it or 
• not but the coolest type of star is the red one. A blue 
• star's temperature can get above 10,000 Kelvin. That's  
• 4,000 Kelvin more than our sun!

Do stars make a big explosion?

• The explosion will depend on the mass of the
• star. Some of the most massive stars don't explode 
• into supernovas but collapse into black holes, or if  
• they do explode it won't be as intense as the death of
• less massive stars.

Why  are some stars bright and others dim?

• It depends on the dissent the father away it is the    
• dimmer it appears. Also Larger stars usually shine        
• brighter then smaller stars do.

Why do stars twinkle?

• Stars twinkle because of the turbulence* in 
• the atmosphere* of Earth.  As the atmosphere
• churns, the light from the stars goes in all 
• different directions. This makes the stars twinkle.

What State of matter Are stars?

• Stars are plasma.* The fourth state of matter.
• Since they are plasma they can reach very 
• high temperatures.

glossary

•   Atmosphere- (at-mos-phere) The envelope of gasses 
• surrounding the earth or another planet.
•   Plasma- (plas-ma) A really hot state of matter.
•   Turbulence-(tur-bu-lence) Violent or unsteady 
• movement of air and water, or some other fluid.