Star

Cosma / Communication / Knowledge / Realm / Physical / Universe / Planetary System / Star
—————————

star : a self-luminous gaseous spheroidal celestial body of great mass which produces energy by means of nuclear fusion reactions — Merriam-Webster See also OneLook

Thesaurus

Roget’s II (Thesaurus.com), Merriam-Webster Thesaurus, Visuwords

Encyclopedia

Star is a luminous sphere of plasma held together by its own gravity. The nearest star to Earth is the Sun. Many other stars are visible to the naked eye from Earth during the night, appearing as a multitude of fixed luminous points in the sky due to their immense distance from Earth. Historically, the most prominent stars were grouped into constellations and asterisms, the brightest of which gained proper names. Astronomers have assembled star catalogues that identify the known stars and provide standardized stellar designations. However, most of the stars in the Universe, including all stars outside our galaxy, the Milky Way, are invisible to the naked eye from Earth. Indeed, most are invisible from Earth even through the most powerful telescopes. — Wikipedia

Star (Encyclopædia Britannica)

Star (COSMOS: The SAO Encyclopedia of Astronomy)

———————–

Adventures

Explore related posts on Cosma …

Milky Way Lost & Found - Have you seen the Milky Way? You may think that you have, but are you sure? Unless you live in an extremely remote area, or you’ve visited one, then you probably haven’t seen our own galaxy, the Milky Way, very well, or at all. Worse yet, you may not even realize that it’s missing. The … Continue reading Milky Way Lost & Found
The Waves Won! - Gravitational waves that is! It has been announced that Rainer Weiss (MIT), Barry Barish (Caltech) and Kip Thorne (Caltech) have won the 2017 2017 Nobel Prize in Physics for their decisive contributions to the LIGO detector and the first observation of gravitational waves in 2015. Here are links to a one minute video from Newsy … Continue reading The Waves Won!
Touch the Sun - Remember how Icarus wanted to touch the Sun, but met his demise instead? Well, scientists at NASA wanted to touch the Sun too, but unlike Icarus, they succeeded! Better yet, they are beginning to share what they learned by doing it! Before we get into all of that, let’s go back and start at the … Continue reading Touch the Sun

———————–

Inspiration

Hubble Skymap puts the night sky at your fingertips any time of day. Roam the Milky Way to find a selection of stars and nebulae as seen by Hubble. To explore the skymap, scroll, double click, or pinch/swipe to zoom in and out. Roll over an icon to see the object, click to zero in, and click again for a detailed view and a description. Drag the map to navigate. — Hubble Skymap (NASA Science)

Hubble Skymap (NASA Science)

Big Idea 8: We Are All Made of Stardust (Big Ideas in Astronomy, International Astronomical Union)

Talks about Stars (TED: Ideas Worth Spreading)
Articles about Stars (Big Think)

———————-

Innovation

Science

Space, But Messier (YouTube Channel)

Stars (NASA Science)
Life and Death of Stars Interactive (NASA’s Universe of Learning)

Stars Videos (ViewSpace, Space Telescope Science Institute)
Stars Theme Videos (ViewSpace, Space Telescope Science Institute)
Star Formation Videos (ViewSpace, Space Telescope Science Institute)
Life and Death of Star Videos (ViewSpace, Space Telescope Science Institute)

Life Cycle of Stars (Astrum, YouTube Playlist)

Stars (SciShow Space, YouTube Playlist)

Star Formation (Max Planck Institute for Astronomy)

Stars (Lunar & Planetary Institute)

Stars (Eric Weisstein’s World of Astronomy, Wolfram Research)

Stars (Wolfram Alpha)
Star Clusters (Wolfram Alpha)
Star Charts (Wolfram Alpha)

Commerce

Buying Stars and Star Names (International Astonomical Union)
Naming of Astronomical Objects (International Astonomical Union)
Naming Stars (International Astronomical Union)

GSC-II (Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy)
Guide Star Catalog (Wikipedia)

CNS3 – Gliese Catalog of Nearby Stars, 3rd Edition
Gliese Catalogue of Nearby Stars (Wikipedia)

————————–

Preservation

—————————

Participation

Education

NASA Goddard (YouTube Channel)
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (Official Website)

Stars (Imagine the Universe, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center)
Stars (Cosmos4Kids)
Stars (Space Scoop)

Star Learning Resources (National Air and Space Museum)

Stars (Astronomy Center, ComPADRE)

MERLOT: Multimedia Educational Resource for Learning and Online Teaching
OER Commons: Open Educational Resources

Course

Stars (Crash Course Astronomy, YouTube Video)
Low Mass Stars (Crash Course Astronomy, YouTube Video)
White Dwarfs & Planetary Nebulae (Crash Course Astronomy, YouTube Video)
High Mass Stars (Crash Course Astronomy, YouTube Video)
Neutron Stars (Crash Course Astronomy, YouTube Video)
Black Holes (Crash Course Astronomy, YouTube Video)
Binary and Multiple Stars (Crash Course Astronomy, YouTube Video)
Star Clusters (Crash Course Astronomy, YouTube Video)

Community

Organization

International Astronomical Union Division G – Stars and Stellar Physics
American Association of Variable Star Observers

News

Stars (Nova Research Highlights, American Astronomical Society)
Star Formation (Nova Research Highlights, American Astronomical Society)
Stellar Evolution (Nova Research Highlights, American Astronomical Society)

Journal of the American Association of Variable Star Observers

Stellar Astronomy (EurekaAlert, AAAS)
Stellar Astronomy (JSTOR)
Stellar Astronomy (NPR Archives)

Stars (Sky & Telescope)
Stars (Astronomy Magazine)

Stars (Science Daily)
Stars (Phys.org)

Recent News from Phys.org …

How big can the universe's first starbursts get?
on September 11, 2026 at 11:20 pm
As our telescopes have improved and we've been able to peer farther back in time, we've begun finding more fascinating features of the universe. But one thing we haven't found for sure is Population III (Pop III) stars. These were the earliest stars in the universe, formed completely from pristine hydrogen and helium, with no "metals" (i.e., elements heavier than those two) polluting their processes.
Fertilizers and extreme heat are damaging coral...
on September 11, 2026 at 6:20 pm
Who isn't familiar with the colorful coral reefs from movies like "Finding Nemo" or "The Little Mermaid"? Unfortunately, the reality is often quite different, as these vital ecosystems are under pressure worldwide. Climate change and pollution are causing corals to bleach and die. Even the most resilient coral reefs of the United States are now threatened.
Planes on a snake? Scientists discover various...
on September 11, 2026 at 1:40 pm
Like all other snakes, sea snakes shed their skin as they grow. But because they live near the surface of the open ocean, they don't have the benefit of removing their old skin by slithering against a hard surface. Instead, they wriggle into a pretzel and use the friction generated by their scales to get the job done.
eROSITA's second data release catalog delivering...
on September 11, 2026 at 1:00 pm
The eROSITA (extended ROentgen Survey with an Imaging Telescope Array) telescope, the primary instrument aboard the Russian-German Spektr-RG space observatory, was developed by the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics (MPE) and collaborators to study the soft X-ray night sky. The mission launched in 2019 and has delivered deep, sharp images over very large areas of the sky to map the high-energy universe. This past summer, the German eROSITA Consortium made its second data release […]
Sun's largest sunspots may have potential to...
on September 10, 2026 at 3:40 pm
The sun is capable of great things. In massive eruptions, it repeatedly hurls particles and radiation into space. This solar bombardment can be dangerous for technical infrastructure on Earth: For example, satellites and transformers in substations can be damaged.