Supergiant and Hypergiant Stars Compared to our Solar System:

The universe is filled with enormous planets that make the Earth seem like nothing more than a speck of sand on a mountain. We don"t even need to leave our solar system in order to find the behemoths that put our planet to shame. Take Jupiter, for example. This gas giant has 63 moons, some of which are larger than the other planets in the solar system (like the moon Ganymede, which is larger than the planet Mercury). Similarly, the Great Red Spot (Jupiter"s largest storm system) could swallow Earth twice over, while over 1,300 Earths could easily fit inside the planet itself.

To put it mildly, Jupiter is truly enormous. But of course, Jupiter isn"t the reigning king of the solar system. Obviously, that title goes to our star--you could fit 1.3 million Earths inside the Sun. That may sound impressive, but (unsurprisingly) there are many stars that dwarf our Sun. In fact, there are stars that dwarf nearly our entire solar system....like Blue Supergiants.

Want to learn about some of the largest stars in the universe? See:
http://www.fromquarkstoquasars.com/supergiant-and-hypergiant-stars-compared-to-our-solar-system/

Image via NASA

How are stars born? How do they die?

You’ve probably been told that staring directly at the Sun is bad for your eyes. However, we don’t have to have uncomfortable staring contests with the Stars to try and get them to give up their secrets! After years and years of research, scientists have managed to find out quite a bit about the oh-so-secretive stars without losing a staring contest.

Firstly, stars go through the same process that we do in the sense that they are born, live, and then die. The difference is that they do it far more dramatically, and take a much longer time doing it. Depending on the mass of the star, the lifetime can range from a few million years to trillions of years! So let"s take a moment to get to know a little something about the lives of some of the oldest inhabitants of the universe: STARS.

Learn about the lives of stars at:
http://www.fromquarkstoquasars.com/how-are-stars-born-how-do-they-die/

Image:
NASA

Cosmic Jewelry: Did the Gold around your Neck Come from Colliding Dead Stars?

Most of us spend our lives chasing gold. For better or worse, this element determines many things over the course of our lives: where we can go to school, where we live, what kind of car we drive, who we marry, and even whether or not we eat. There are two rather simple reasons that we value gold so highly—it is beautiful, and it is rare.

And it’s not just rare on Earth; gold is also rare in the universe.

Find out where we get it at:
http://www.fromquarkstoquasars.com/cosmic-jewelry-did-the-gold-around-your-neck-come-from-colliding-dead-stars/

Image before editing:
NASA

Behemoths of the Universe: Hypergiant Stars

We’ve told you about all about VY Canis Majoris, the most sizable star in the known universe. Lurking in the cosmos some 4,900 light-years from earth (about 28.8 quadrillion miles from our home), Canis Majoris is a mammoth without compare. If this star were in the center of our solar system, it would extend far beyond the orbit of Saturn (so let’s be glad that it’s a few quadrillion miles away).

To give you some hard figures, the circumference of our Sun is approximate 2.7 million miles (4.3 million km), while Canis Majoris is approximately 1.9 billion miles (3 billion km). This means that, when circling around the sun, light clocks in at about 14.58 seconds. However, it takes almost 8 hours for photons to travel around Canis Majoris.

Learn about the biggest known stars at:
http://www.fromquarkstoquasars.com/behemoths-of-the-universe-hypergiant-stars/

Image via NASA/wikimedia

Life Beyond Earth: A Day on a Neutron Star:

Let’s talk about what it would be like to spend a day on a neutron star. I know that this might not seem like the best vacation spot; after all, neutron stars are rather small. However, these objects are remarkable, and also terribly bizarre (imagine our Sun being compressed to the size of Chicago, and you begin to understand just how remarkably bizarre neutron stars are). Even though they are tiny, typically only about 25 km (15 mi) in diameter, neutron stars are more massive than our sun.

And of course, a small diameter + a high mass = super high density.

In fact, aside from black holes, neutron stars are the densest objects in the universe. An average neutron star will have a density around 5 x 1017 kg/m3 (which is roughly the equivalent of all of humanity being squashed into a single sugar cube). But unfortunately, your vacation to this remarkably bizarre object will be a bit short. You see, most neutron stars rotate rather fast. Excessively fast, in fact. A typical neutron star rotates about 40,000 times a minute; since a “day” is determined by how long it takes an object to complete one rotation, a day on a neutron star whizzes by in just a fraction of a second.

So only plan on spending a day on a neutron star if you have super great time management skills; by the time you landed, you"d have to leave as your day would be over.

Another remarkably bizarre part of a neutron star is the crust. Although it’s not very thick, generally about 1km or .6miles, the crust is approximately 100 billion times stronger than steel. So you shouldn’t go to a neutron star if you hope to spend your day building fantastical sandcastles—the crust of the star is simply too strong for you to break through with your tiny ineffectual shovel. Alas, neutronstar-castles will never be a thing.

To learn more about neutron stars, and what a day on one would be like, see:
http://www.fromquarkstoquasars.com/life-beyond-earth-a-day-on-a-neutron-star/

Image source:
http://startswithabang.com/?p=1014