Names of stars and constellations in the sky. Amazingly beautiful and unusual stars in space

For centuries, every night we see mysterious lights in the sky - the stars of our Universe. In ancient times, people saw animal figures in clusters of stars, and later they began to be called constellations. Currently, scientists have identified 88 constellations that divide the night sky into sections. Stars are sources of energy and light for the solar system. They are capable of creating heavy elements that are necessary for the beginning of life. Thus, the Sun gives its warmth to all living things on the planet. The brightness of stars is determined by their size.

Star Canis Majoris from the constellation Canis Major is the largest in the Universe. It is located 5 thousand light years from the solar system. Its diameter is 2.9 billion kilometers.

Of course, not all stars in space are so huge. There are also dwarf stars. Scientists estimate the size of stars on a scale - the brighter the star, the lower its number. The brightest star in the night sky is Sirius. Stars are divided into classes based on their colors, which indicate their temperature. Class O includes the hottest ones, they blue color. Red stars are the coolest.

It should be noted that the stars do not twinkle. This effect is similar to what we observe on hot summer days when we look at hot concrete or asphalt. It feels like we're looking through a shaking glass. The same process causes the illusion of a star twinkling. The closer it is to our planet, the more it “flickers.”

Types of stars

The main sequence is the lifetime of a star, which depends on its size. Small stars shine longer, large ones, on the contrary, less. Massive stars will have enough fuel for a couple of hundred thousand years, while small ones will burn for billions of years.

Red giant - big star orange or reddish tint. Stars of this type are very large in size, hundreds of times larger than usual. The most massive of them become supergiants. Betelgeuse, from the constellation Orion, is the brightest of the red supergiants.

A white dwarf is a remnant ordinary star, after the red giant. These stars are quite dense. Their size is no larger than our planet, but their mass can be compared to the Sun. The temperature of white dwarfs reaches 100 thousand degrees or more.

Brown dwarfs are also called substars. These are massive balls of gas that are larger than Jupiter and smaller than the Sun. These stars do not emit heat or light. They are a dark clot of matter.

Cepheid. Its pulsation cycle varies between a few seconds and several years. It all depends on the type of variable star. Cepheids change their luminosity at the end of their lives and at the beginning. They can be external and internal.

Most stars are part of star systems. Binary stars are two gravitationally bound stars. Scientists have proven that half the stars in the galaxy have a pair. They can eclipse each other because their orbits are at a low angle to the line of sight.

New stars. This is a type of cataclysmic variable star. Their brightness does not change as sharply as compared to supernovae. In our galaxy, there are two groups of new stars: new bulges (slow and fainter) and new disks (faster and brighter).

Supernovae. Stars that end their evolution in an explosive process. This term was used to describe stars that flared up more than novae. But neither one nor the other is new. Stars that already exist always flare up.

Hypernovae. This is a very large supernova. Theoretically, they could pose a serious threat to the Earth strong flash, but on at the moment There are no similar stars near our planet.

Life cycle of stars

The star originates as a cloud of gas and dust called a nebula. The blast wave of a supernova or the gravity of a nearby star can cause it to collapse. Elements of the cloud gather into a dense region called a protostar. The next time it is compressed, it heats up and reaches a critical mass. Afterwards, a nuclear process occurs, and the star goes through all phases of existence. The first one is the most stable and long lasting. But over time, the fuel runs out, and the small star becomes a red giant, and the large one becomes a red supergiant. This phase will last until the fuel runs out completely. The nebula that remains behind the star can expand over millions of years. After which it will affect her blast wave or gravity, and everything will repeat all over again.

Main processes and characteristics

A star has two parameters that determine everything internal processes, – chemical composition and mass. By assigning them to a single star, one can predict the spectrum, brightness and internal structure stars.

Distance

There are many ways to determine distances to a star. The most accurate is parallax measurement. The distance to the star Vega was measured by astronomer Vasily Struve in 1873. If the star is located in a star cluster, the distance to the star can be taken equal to the distance to the accumulation. If the star is a Cepheid, the distance can be calculated from the relationship between absolute magnitude and pulsation period. To determine the distance to distant stars, astronomers use photometry.

Weight

The exact mass of a star is determined if it is a component of a binary star. For this, Kepler's third law is used. You can also indirectly determine the mass, for example, from the luminosity – mass relationship. In 2010, scientists proposed another way to calculate mass. It is based on observations of the passage of a planet with a satellite across the disk of a star. By applying Kepler's laws and studying all the data, they determine the density and mass of the star, the rotation period of the satellite and planet, and other characteristics. At the moment this method has been used in practice.

Chemical composition

The chemical composition depends on the type of star and its mass. Large stars do not possess elements heavier than helium, but red and yellow dwarfs are relatively rich in them. This helps the star light up.

Structure

There are three internal zones: convective, core and radiative transfer zone.

Convective zone. Here, due to the convention, energy transfer occurs.

The core is the central part of the star where nuclear reactions take place.

Radiant zone. Here, energy transfer occurs due to the emission of photons. In small stars this zone is absent; in large stars it is located between the convective zone and the core.

The atmosphere lies above the surface of the star. It consists of three parts - the chromosphere, photosphere and corona. The photosphere is its deepest part.

Star wind

This is a process in which matter from a star flows into interstellar space. It plays an important role in evolution. As a result of the stellar wind, the mass of the star decreases, which means that its life depends entirely on the intensity of this process.

Principles of star designation and catalogs

There are more than 200 billion stars in the galaxy. There are so many of them in photographs taken by large telescopes that it makes no sense to give them all names or even count them. About 0.01 percent of the stars in our galaxy are cataloged. Each nation gave its brightest stars names. For example, Algol, Rigel, Aldebaran, Deneb and others come from Arabic.

In Bayer's Uranometry, stars are designated by Greek letters. alphabet in descending order of brightness (α is the brightest, β is the second brightest). If Greek alphabet was not enough, Latin was used. Some stars are named after scientists who described their unique properties.

Big Dipper

The constellation Ursa Major consists of 7 spectacular stars that are quite easy to find in the sky. In addition to these, there are 125 more stars in the constellation. This constellation is one of the largest and covers 1280 square meters in the sky. degrees. Scientists have found that the stars of the bucket are at an unequal distance from us.

The closest star is Aliot, the farthest is Benetnash. For astronomy lovers, this constellation can serve as a “training ground”:

· Thanks to Ursa Major you can easily find other constellations.

· Throughout the year, it clearly shows the revolution of the sky per day and the restructuring of its appearance.

· If you remember the angular distances between stars, you can make approximate angular measurements.

· With a barely perceptible telescope, you can see the variable and double stars in Ursa Major.

Legends and myths of the constellation

“Bucket” has been known to us since ancient times. The ancient Greeks claimed that this was the nymph Calisto, who was the companion of Artemis and the lover of Zeus. She ignored the rules and brought the goddess into disfavor. She turned her into a bear and set the dogs on. To keep Zeus's beloved safe, he raised her to heaven. This event is dark, and every time they try to add something new to this story, such as the friend of the nymph Callisto, who was turned into Ursa Minor.

You can also see the Big Dipper during the day using interactive map constellations. Here you can find other small and large constellations and see them at close range..

Which we see as a small luminous point in the night sky. In fact, all stars are huge balls consisting of hot gases. They contain ninety percent hydrogen, a little less than ten percent helium, and the rest - various impurities. At the center of the ball the temperature is approximately six million degrees. This value corresponds to the limit that allows free flow. During this chemical process, hydrogen is converted into helium. As a result, a huge amount is released which is transmitted into outer space in the form of bright light.

Which is the same as the Sun. Moreover, small stars are ten times smaller in size than our luminary, and large ones exceed its parameters by one hundred and fifty times.

Often, in response to the question of what a star is, astronomers call these the main bodies located in the Universe. The thing is that they contain the bulk of the luminous substance that can be found in outer space.

The stars in the sky that we can observe through a telescope are often surrounded by nebulae that have different shape. These new formations, which are clouds of gas and dust, can begin the process of compaction at any moment. At the same time, they will shrink into a ball-shaped figure and heat up to a significant temperature. When the thermal regime reaches six million degrees, thermonuclear interaction will begin, that is, a new celestial body will be formed.

Scientists have identified various types stars They are divided according to their mass and luminosity. It is also possible to divide by stages evolutionary process.

The class, which contains stars in which the emitted energy is balanced with the energy of thermonuclear reactions, divides them according to the type of glow into:

Blue;

White and blue;

White-yellow;

Red;

Orange.

Maximum temperature observed in stars with a blue glow, minimal - in red ones. Our Sun belongs to yellow look luminary Its age exceeds four and a half billion years. The core temperature, which scientists calculated, is 13.5 million K, and the corona temperature is 1.5 million K.

What is a giant star? This type of luminary includes fiery bodies with mass and diameters exceeding the Sun by several tens of thousands of times. Giants emitting a red glow are at a certain evolutionary stage. The diameter of a star increases by the time the hydrogen in its core is completely burned out. At the same time, the combustion temperature of the gases decreases and the red glow spreads over millions of kilometers. Giant stars include VV Cephei A, VY Canis Majoris, KW Sagittarius and many others.

There are also dwarfs among the heavenly bodies. Their diameter is much smaller than the size of our Sun. There are dwarfs:

White (cooling);

Yellow (similar to the Sun);

Brown (often considered as planets);

Red (relatively cold);

Black (finally cooled and lifeless).

There is also a type of variable stars. These luminaries are bodies that have changed their brilliance and development dynamics at least once in the entire history of observation. These include:

Rotating;

Pulsating;

Eruptive;

Other unstable, new, and difficult-to-predict luminaries.

Such stars, which are represented mainly by bright blue and hypernovae, are very specific and little studied. Each of them is the result of the resistance of matter and the work of gravitational forces.

Stars are also considered to be one of the stages in the evolutionary process of celestial bodies. Such a body does not emit glow, but certain of its characteristics put it on a par with stars.

No, not really. Don't even try to do this. Not a single scientist on earth is able to tell the truth how many stars there are in the Universe. He just doesn't know it. There are countless of them in space, and at the same time this number changes at every moment - stars in space are continuously born and die.

In order to at least approximately number of stars in space, you should know that, for example, in our star galaxy There are approximately 150 billion stars, and in the entire Universe the number of galaxies, according to the same scientists, is several billion. At the same time, earthly astronomers have long counted the stars visible in the sky with the naked eye - there are only about 6 thousand of them. All these stars have been described, studied for a long time and even included in special space records. star catalogs.

What do stars look like in space and how are they divided into groups?

Looking carefully at the sky, it is easy to notice that some stars in space appear larger or brighter than others. The main version of the classification of stars was introduced by astronomers back in the 2nd century BC, it was developed by an ancient Greek scientist Hipparchus of Nicaea.

This method of classifying stars in space consists of dividing celestial bodies into groups depending on their size. However, the word “magnitude” must not be understood true sizes of stars in space, and their brightness. According to the classifier, the brightest stars in space are stars of the first magnitude. They shine 2.5 times brighter than stars of the second magnitude, and those, naturally, are 2.5 times brighter than stars of the third magnitude, etc. By the way, with the naked eye, without , it is possible to see stars up to the sixth magnitude.

What is the easiest way to distinguish a planet from a star?

Remember that translated from Greek the word means "wandering star". Indeed, the stars are very similar. However, if you look at them more closely, you will notice that the stars twinkle, and the planets shine evenly. calm light. This happens because the stars themselves emit light, and the planet only reflects the light falling on its surface.

How to distinguish a planet from a star

In addition, the planets are constantly moving across the sky, wandering or, in common parlance, floating, without occupying the sky. specific place. Because planets float across the sky, revolving around their star, they are called planets or gliding stars.

Is it true that in ancient times the North Star was a guiding star?

North Star

Yes, it's true. Centuries of observations of stars have made it possible to determine that one of the most bright stars night sky, called the North Star by ancient astronomers, is in the same place in the sky every night, regardless of the time of year. This discovery helped and still helps travelers, and in ancient times contributed to the rapid development of trade and the development of new territories, since people had a constant reference point for returning home.

Nowadays, determining location by stars is called celestial navigation. And, despite the fact that there are modern and accurate methods of orientation, people still continue to navigate by the stars.

The legend of how Aquarius appeared in the sky?

Pictures of space and stars for children - the constellation Aquarius

One of the twelve zodiac constellations in space, nicknamed Aquarius, is depicted on astronomical maps as a man pouring water. This is Aquarius. According to mythology, he became Ganymede, the son of the king of Troy, Tros. Zeus kidnapped the young prince and took him to Olympus. Here Ganymede served as cupbearer and poured wine nectar to the gods during feasts. In gratitude for a job well done, Zeus perpetuated the memory of Ganymede in the sky in the form of the zodiac, called by people Aquarius.