Star Size Comparisons
February 22, 2011
I chose this APOD because I thought that it was a really good eye opener to just how big stars are. We are studying stars right now and how they are formed, so I found this to be perfect. The Sun is not a large star by any means. Our G2 star is just average on the main sequence. Stars, like Antares can get huge! Red Super-giants are the biggest stars that we know of so far, being very large, but not very hot. Stars that are huge take a shorter time to form when compared to small stars. Gas and dust collapse on themselves and form a dense center. After millions of years, the nebula forms a photosphere, now officially being a protostar. Then, the center heats up even more so that nuclear fusion can occur. Once the protostar has nuclear fusion, the protostar is a star. The star will stay on the main sequence for 90% of its life, where there won't be much change. The other 10% is where it gets interesting. The universe is an immense blackness covered in stars and galaxies, as well as nebulae and planets. The human race will most likely never be able to discover and see everything in space, but we have a good idea how large it can get. :)
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