Mankind has always been fascinated by stars and in spite of surges in technology, have looked up to the heavens and wondered at the little bursts of light. There are various folklore stories concerning these luminous bodies which have been passed down from generation to generation. But the modern man, thanks to developments in science and technology, are much more aware about these cosmic bodies.

Stars are probably the most abundant objects in our universe and exhibit various alignments which are known as constellations. Currently, there are eighty eight constellations and astronomers make use of these to identify the location of various stars. We now know that it is these celestial objects that provide our solar system with light and energy; they also create the so called heavy elements which are necessary for the formation of life in this universe. Like we all know, our sun is also a star and without the energy and light of the sun, there will be no life on this planet or anywhere in the entire universe.

The brightness of a star is referred to as magnitude and astronomers rate each star for its magnitude with a low number given for brighter stars and a higher one for the dimmer objects. These light bodies can also be identified according to their color which is actually an indication of its temperature. These luminous objects can be divided into various spectral classes which are O, B, A, F, G, K and M; the former class is the hottest in temperature and has a blue color and the latter is the coolest and are red in color.

Though our favorite nursery rhyme has always been ‘twinkle, twinkle, little star,’ the fact is that stars do not twinkle and the blinking effect is due to a phenomenon called atmospheric interference. The rising air in the atmosphere causes the images to waver and hence we see the stars as twinkling. Nuclear reactions take place inside a star whereby hydrogen is converted into helium by a process called fusion; it is the nuclear fusion that results in the enormous energy released by this celestial body. Once all the hydrogen has been converted to helium, the star will next begin to convert helium into oxygen and carbon which goes on to form other elements if the star is big enough.

There are many different types of stars and some of these are main sequence objects, red giants, white dwarfs, brown dwarfs, variable stars and binary stars. Only during main sequence, the star has a stable nuclear reaction going on and most of the life of a star is spent in this stage. The binary objects are those which occur in pairs and are bound together by gravitational force. The variable star is one which exhibits changes in its brightness; these are also known as eclipsing binaries if the brightness is being changed due to an external factor like another star in the vicinity.

Stars will never cease to wonder us and no matter how much science can reveal about these objects, humans will continue to gaze upwards in amazement at these cosmic wonders.

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