LMR-010 · Stars
Star
The Sun is detonating 600 million tons of hydrogen every second.
§ A first look
§ Depths
Six ways into the same idea — from bedtime story to chalkboard. No order required.
L1 · Crayon
Told like a bedtime story.
For a curious 10-year-old. No jargon. Just a picture in your head.
The Sun is a giant ball of incredibly hot gas, way bigger than the whole Earth, hanging in the middle of our sky and politely lighting everything up so we can find the kitchen. At night, when our side of the Earth is turned away from it, you can see thousands of tiny dots of light up there. Every single one of those dots is another sun, just so unbelievably far away that it looks like a sparkle instead of an entire face full of light. Every star you see is somebody's daytime — or would be, if anyone lived there to use it.
§ Strange but true
- 01The Sun detonates 600 million tons of hydrogen every second — and has done so for 4.6 billion years.
- 02The light hitting your face right now left the Sun's surface 8 minutes ago. The energy behind it spent 100,000 years escaping the core.
- 03The calcium in your bones, the iron in your blood — every heavy atom in you was made in a star that died before the Sun existed.
§ From the field journal
Star
"The Sun is detonating 600 million tons of hydrogen every second."
— observed, sketched, not yet fully understood.
§ Nearby
Constellations near Star
→
Fusion
How to make sunlight: squeeze hydrogen until it gives up.
→
Supernova
One dying star outshining its entire galaxy of 100 billion siblings.
→
Neutron Star
A teaspoon of one weighs as much as Mount Everest.
→
Black Hole
A place in the sky where the door only opens one way.
→
Red Giant
The Sun's swollen future. It will swallow Mercury and Venus.
→
White Dwarf
A dead star's leftover ember. Will cool for a trillion years.