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The Stars We Wish Upon

#Astronomy

By Nancy DPublished 5 years ago 2 min read
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When sitting in your backyard and simply looking at the sky, the stars all look roughly the same. However, there is a vast variation amongst them. They have a variety of colours, temperatures, and characteristics that allow them to be identified as unique stars. In this short article, I will briefly go over the characteristics, creation of, and death of stars.

Looking at the night sky

As you look up the night sky, all of the little pinpricks of light are stars… with a few exceptions. Sometimes, they are planets like Mars, and sometimes, it might even be a man-made satellite. In rare occasions, it might even be a comet.

So many stars, yet we can only see "our" stars...

The stars we do see are in fact "our" stars. By this, I mean that they are stars that are part of The Milky Way. It interesting that out of all the stars in the universe, we can only see the ones from our galaxy. The stars from other galaxies are simply too far away.

The Milky Way Galaxy/our home galaxy

Artist’s impression of the Milky Way Galaxy, as seen from above the galactic “North Pole."

Credit: NASA

The Milky Way Galaxy measures about 110,000 light years in diameter, and about 15,000 light years in width. It is a spiral-shaped galaxy with radiating arms that emphasize both its spiral shape, and its dynamic nature. Our galaxy is home to an estimated 200 billion stars, most of which are found towards the central core. As shown by the artistic representation above, if we could view our home galaxy from beyond, it would have a brilliant golden central area surrounded by a multi-coloured stream of arms.

An arm from our galaxy

Photo Credit: © Tunc Tezel

"The heavenly view of the Milky Way galaxy was taken in the South Pacific paradise of Mangaia, the most southerly of the Cook Islands. This image was chosen as one of the winners of the National Maritime Museum's Astrophotographer of the Year 2011 Contest"—Nola Taylor Redd.

“Only in the darkness can you see the stars.”—Martin Luther King Jr.

Hello. Nice to meet you! How are you? Hmm... this feels like a really one-sided conversation... why don't you follow me on social media so I can get to know you too!

About the author

I started blogging about two years ago, and my collection of blogs and articles is getting pretty impressive. I’ve taken online classes for writing, and even some classes about the art of blogging itself. It would be really awesome if you joined the adventure, and maybe even helped me think of what to write about next. If you would like to submit some feedback or ideas, you can always tweet me on Twitter.

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Thank you for reading my article. Would it be okay if I ask another favour though? Would it be okay if you share this on your Facebook page or Twitter? If you can't share, there is a tiny little donate box at the bottom, too. No pressure though—just thought I would mention it.

Works Cited

Redd, Nola Taylor. “Milky Way Galaxy: Facts About Our Galactic Home.” Space.com, Space, 14 Nov. 2017, www.space.com/19915-milky-way-galaxy.html.

Williams, Matt. “What Is the Milky Way?” Universe Today, 15 Jan. 2019, www.universetoday.com/106062/what-is-the-milky-way-2/.

astronomy
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About the Creator

Nancy D

Facebook @NancyDBlogging

Twitter @BlogsNancy

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