10 facts about Stars

1. There could be over a Septillion (1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000) stars in the universe.
2. Contrary to popular belief a black hole does not “suck” in the objects around it. Due to their incredible mass, according to Einstein’s general theory of relativity, they actually bend space in such a way that everything within their gravitational field is pushed towards it.
3. The closest observable star is Sol, or as it’s more commonly known, the Sun.
4. There are approximately 400 billion stars in the Milky Way galaxy alone.
5. Despite many peoples claims of there being “green” stars, there are no stars in the known universe which are green. A green star is usually a side effect of a looking through a telescope on a certain wavelength.
6. The Sun produces the energy equivalent to 100 billion typical hydrogen bombs every second.
7. Scientists believe that 3.5 billion years from today, the Sun will shine 40 percent brighter than it does at present. The heat will be so high, it will make oceans boil and the resulting water vapor will be lost forever to space.
8. Despite how often stars are claimed to “twinkle” this is not true. The twinkling effect is merely the light from the star passing through the Earth’s atmosphere, and it is merely deflecting the light before it reaches your eyes.
9. The largest star in the universe is the VY Canis Majoris. It is 2,800,000,000 kilometers in diameter. It would take you 1,100 years to complete an orbit around it if you are aboard a passenger airplane that flies at 900 kilometers per hour.
10. If you look at the stars, you are actually looking back in time. This is because light from stars and galaxies in far away distances take a long time, about thousands or even millions of years, before it can reach the Earth. The largest star is said to be 4,900 light years away from the earth.