The Origin Of Stars And Planets

Stars formed millions or billions of years ago. The starlight that we see left those stars some time ago- ranging from a few minutes ago (Sunlight) to four years ago (Alpha Centauri light, Sun's nearest star). According to the earth's definition by International Astronomical Union, a spherical object that orbits a star and has a strong gravitational pull enough to clear its orbit. Some planets are Earth, Mars, Jupiter, and Neptune. We can classified planets into 2 different categories 'Terrestrial planets' and 'Gas giants'.

Planets can be classified into 3 categories: The first one is Dwarf-they have smaller orbit because of less gravitational pull. Ceres (found in the asteroid belt), Eris (located in the Kuiper belt), and Pluto. The second one is: Super-Earth and the third one is hot Jupiter. These two are also called extrasolar planet or exoplanets. Super earth is made of ice and rock and is two to three sizes bigger than earth. They don't orbit our Sun. They orbit cooler red stars which are half the size of Sun. These cooler red stars are at a safe distance might be able to support life. Hot Jupiter is basically larger in size than Jupiter and is made of Gas. They orbit very close to their stars and are very easy to detect because of their size.

The nebula is the birthplace of the stars "an enormous cloud of inter seller dust and hydrogen." The building blocks for stars galaxies and planet is the Universe are represented by Nebulae. Nebulae form when stars die when the end comes for our Sun, for example, it's outer layer will heat swell and eventually blow off. A Nebula will be created by a hot dead core and will become a nursery for new stars. According to NASA, "There are more planets than stars in our galaxy and they've already discovered thousands of planets orbiting stars but the current numbers of planets are eight." Stars range from the smallest to the biggest which is Sun.

By: Aditya Raj Awasthi

School: Pinnacle National School

Class: 6th