Astronomy Facts 101

For 2 years, I have been interested in astronomy. I finally decided to give you an astronomy 101. I will be exploring topics and giving important facts to know to start your astronomy career. Today I will start with stars

Stars:

• Stars are classified in many ways: one of the ways is by identifying the heat that the star emits. O is the hottest, and M is the lowest. The lower ones are used for brown dwarfs (failed stars)
• Stars die in 3 ways: Fading into a cooler version, by planetary nebulae, and by Supernovae
• The Bigger the star, the less lifespan it has. For example, blue supergiants live for 10 million years, and red dwarfs last for trillions. Our star will last 10 billion years
• The star's color identifies the heat. Red stars are the coolest because they are on the side of the spectrum that needs the color-producing object to release the least energy. Blue stars are hot because they are on the side of the spectrum that needs the color-producing object to release the most energy
• Stars for most of their life undergo something called “Nuclear Fusion,” which makes light elements in stars combine into heavy elements.
• COMMON MISCONCEPTION: STARS DON’T TWINKLE IN SPACE. THEY TWINKLE BECAUSE OF OUR ATMOSPHERE.

Planets (in our solar system)

• In our solar system, there are 8 planets that we know of.
• Saturn is the planet with the most moons, with 285 moons that we know of (the number keeps on increasing)
• Jupiter is the biggest planet in our solar system and has shaped how the solar system looks. In the early solar system, Uranus’s and Neptune's orbits were switched, and some other planets’ orbits were closer to the sun and further from the sun if it wasn’t for Jupiter.
• Earth is the only planet known to host life, even though there might have been life in the early solar system on Mars and Venus.
• Venus is the only planet in the solar system that has its day longer than its year
• Uranus is completely flipped upside down,
• COMMON MISCONCEPTION: SATURN IS NOT THE ONLY ONE WITH RINGS; JUPITER, URANUS, AND NEPTUNE ALSO HAVE RINGS. MARS WILL HAVE RINGS WHEN PHOBOS CRASHES INTO IT

Moons:

• Jupiter has 4 major moons known as the Galilean moons (Io, Europa, Callisto, Ganymede). They have some insane stuff like magnetic fields, possible underwater oceans, insane densities of volcanoes, and much more
• Saturn has 2 moons that (according to me) are worth mentioning. Titan and Enceladus. Titan is the only moon with liquid on its surface and an atmosphere. And Enceladus is one of the only moons with geysers that spew water.
• Mars’s moons are thought to be captured asteroids (asteroids passing by Mars that got into orbit with it)
• Even though most moons are smaller than planets, some moons, like Ganymede and Titan, are bigger than Mercury
• There are approximately 900 moons that are in our solar system

Astronomy 101:

• Will give more information on larger celestial bodies like galaxy clusters galaxies, Superclusters and much more

Thank you for reading

Astrokid OUT