Nothing in the world will make you seem so minuscule and insignificant as our wonderful galaxy. Our galaxy contains at least 100 billion stars. You may wonder what do stars look like up close.
While on Earth, we may feel like the center of the universe, the truth is that our planet is smaller than a grain of sand on a beach.
And it’s crazy to try and imagine, right? That this huge planet is actually tiny in comparison to the universe that surrounds us.
Think about all the stars that you see in the sky. They’re these bright twinkling lights that litter the dark night.
And from the ground, it seems as if they’re not all that far away from us. When, in reality, the closest star to Earth is a whopping 25,300,000,000,000 miles away (about 39,900,000,000,000 km). That would be one hell of a commute.
To put that into perspective, it would take approximately 73,000 years to travel there. And even if it were possible to travel at the speed of light, you’d still be looking at an ETA of around 4.22 years.
So, I think I’ve established my point quite well; stars are really, really far away. And it’s left a lot of us wondering, well then what do these twinkling lights look like up close?
One thing to remember is that every star that we see in the night sky is within our own galaxy. We can not see any stars outside of the Milky Way. We can however see objects outside the galaxy. The farthest thing observable with the naked is the galaxy Andromeda. This galaxy is 2.5 million light-years from Earth.
What Do Stars Look Like Up Close?
Obviously, no human has ever had the chance to see a star up close personally. Technology may be advancing rapidly, but we’re definitely not at a point where we can shoot astronauts 73,000 years worth of distance into space.
But thanks to other inventions, we have been able to get images of these natural wonders.
And the results are astounding.
Stars are essentially huge balls of light. A lot brighter than what your or my naked eye would be able to see when staring up at the sky. And these balls of light are actually glowing gas. Scientists call this ‘glowing gas’ plasma because it is different to the gas that we know.
But when you get a little closer, you can see much more detail in these orbs of light.
They have these wispy tails of smoke that also glow. The whole ball is shrouded in these tails of bright light. The center has an almost popcorn-like texture.
Imagine a huge balloon of light with this bumpy texture that repeatedly expels these fierce streams of fire. That is what you can expect to see if you were really close to a star.
Stars can also vary in color. To examine the color of a star, scientists have to examine the brightness of its light one color at a time.
From there, they must compare the results to determine the star’s temperature.
Our Most Familiar Shining Star
Of all the stars in our sky, there is one that we are most familiar with. That probably has something to do with the fact that we need it to survive. Can you guess which star we’re talking about?
That’s right – the sun.
Since the sun is so pivotal to our existence, it makes sense that it’s the star we’re most familiar with and have the most extensive research for.
Many have peered up at this shining star through telescopes, but some space agencies have even sent robotic probes closer than any human could possibly approach the sun.
And through this research, we’ve learned a lot more about the appearance of the sun. We know that the sun’s surface is made up of these bubbling shifting clouds that are actually roiling gas.
This surface is somewhat difficult to describe.
The clouds are always brightest at their center and begin diluting around their edges.
Some compare it to peanut brittle or popcorn, while others note that it looks a little like the edge of an explosion shown in slow motion.
The sun also looks pretty different depending on the perspective it’s shown from.
You also have to consider that pictures of the sun are usually filtered somewhat to show only certain kinds of light. It’s simply so bright that without it you really wouldn’t be able to make out much.
When looking at the sun as a whole, it looks more like a vortex of whirling and swirling clouds that range from darker browns to lighter shades of yellow and orange. It also has a glowing border around the surface of the orb.
Viewing the Sun’s Details
In our day to day lives we are familiar with white light. In essence, this is the sum of all the wavelengths that the Sun generates. It literally covers all of the colors in the rainbow.
The Sun’s details are magnificently displayed if we use special filters so that only a very narrow range of color is allowed to pass. A common system allows only the light created by excited hydrogen emits. This is called hydrogen alpha. It is a very small component of visible light.
When images are produced using narrow band filters many of the features of the Sun’s surface and the plasma that it emits. Along with hydrogen alpha there are other narrow bands of interest to scientists.
The image on the right is a hydrogen alpha image from NASA.
Other Stars Up Close
Of course, the sun isn’t the only star scientists are interested in. In the binary star R Aquarii, two stars orbit each other really closely.
And one of these stars has such an intense amount of gravity that it is slowly but surely tearing the other star apart.
And this is causing it to look really different from the star we know best.
The issue with some of these stars is that they are so far away that it’s hard for humans to understand what it looks like up close.
For example, the Betelgeuse star, which is the tenth brightest star in our sky, is 425 quadrillion miles away. And to put that into perspective for you a little bit, let’s take a look at what the value of one quadrillion looks like written down – 1,000,000,000,000,000.
And that’s just one quadrillion. This star is 425 quadrillion miles away from Earth. It takes light 427 years to travel from the star it Earth.
So as you might imagine, even with the best of our specialist equipment, this star still looks like nothing more than a fuzzy bright blob.
While star-gazing from the ground is spell-bounding enough, there is something so astonishing about seeing them up close.
And scientists are always trying to get closer and closer to these amazing natural creations.
For now, though, it seems as if we’ll have to wait for a rapid advance in technology to get a closer peak at these amazing bright balls of light that live hundreds of lightyears away.
Hi, my name is Jason Anderson, and I am a Physics Professor. Ever since I was a kid, I’ve been fascinated with space, the universe, the moon, you name it. I spent hours and hours at the planetarium close to my hometown, wondering what else could be out in the universe.
Since then, I’ve been an avid stargazer and astronomer, and love nothing more than spending my time charting stars, observing planets, and finding constellations.
This is why I decided to start Telescope Guru. I only wish to share this fun pastime with the world. With this site, I hope to answer all of your questions relating to astronomy, telescopes, and stargazing.
