ONLINE TREASURE HUNT

9-Soriano Group 5

Guide Questions
1. Describe stars according to its size,
brightness, color and temperature.

Size and Brightness

White Dwarf
➢ White dwarfs are the smallest type stars, with a similar size to earth, and with
extreme mass. The mass of these stars can be equal to that of the sun. Because of its
small size its luminosity is low.

Brown Dwarf
➢ Brown dwarfs are around the same size of a large planet in the solar system.
Because of their low temperatures and small sizes, brown dwarfs have extremely
low luminosities

Red Dwarf
➢ Red dwarfs are one of the most common stars in the Milky Way galaxy. Larger than
white and brown dwarfs but smaller than yellow dwarfs. Its average luminosity is
0.04 which is very faint.

Yellow Dwarf
➢ Yellow dwarfs are main sequence stars which means that they are in the stable
range of their life cycle. Our sun is a yellow dwarf, so yellow dwarfs are similar in
size to our sun. Its average luminosity is 1.2, they belong to the main sequence of
special type G.

Blue Giant
➢ Blue giants are the smallest of the 7 larger type stars, and larger than yellow dwarfs.
10,000 to a million times brighter than the Sun.

Red Giant
➢ Red giants are larger luminous stars that have low mass. They are in a late phase of
the star cycle and have burned most on the hydrogen at the core. A red giant may be
releasing 1,000-10,000 times the luminosity of the Sun.
Blue Supergiant
➢ Blue supergiant stars are in between the size of red giants and blue hypergiants.
They become blue supers through radiation pressure, convection and the large
burning of hydrogen. They are the brightest of all stars which has 60,000 times
luminosity energy of the sun.

Red Supergiant
➢ Red supergiants are a size in between red hypergaints and blue hypergiants. They
become supergiants through their life cycle. The well-known star ‘Betelgeuse’ is a
red supergiant and also has as a luminosity about 10,000 times that of the Sun

Red Hypergiant
➢ Red hypergiants are the largest discovered stars in the universe so far. They are
extremely luminous and extremely large.

COLOR AND TEMPERATURE

Star Color Approximate Temperature (Kalvin)
Blue 25,000 K
White 10,000 K
Yellow 6000 K
Orange 4000 K
Red 3000 K

2. How does a star form?

- Stars are born as clumps within gigantic gas clouds that collapse in on themselves. The
cloud’s material heats up as it falls inward under the force of its own gravity. When the gas
reaches about 10 million K (18 million °F), hydrogen nuclei begin to fuse into helium nuclei,
and the star is born. Energy from nuclear fusion radiates outward from the center of the
burgeoning star, and gradually stops the gas cloud’s collapse.

3.Is it true that a star is a burning ball of

fire? Why? Why not?
- No, because the Sun does not "burn”. It glows because it is a very big ball of gas, and a
process called nuclear fusion is taking place in its core. This energy then heats up the other
materials nearby. This heating eventually grows out from the center (or core) of the star to
the outside, finally leaving the surface and radiating out into space to be the heat and light
we know stars emit.
4. What is the North Star?
- The North Star or Pole Star (Polaris) is famous for holding nearly still in our sky while the
entire northern sky moves around it. That’s because it’s located nearly at the north celestial
pole, the point around which the entire northern sky turns. Polaris marks the way due
north. As you face Polaris and stretch your arms sideways, your right-hand points due east,
and your left-hand points due west.

5. What are some legends about the North

Star? In China and India?
India:
According to the Omaha Indian Story, the star acted as a guide back to home for the lost son
of an Indian chief. This tale took place during an era of tribal conflict between an Omaha
tribe and its rivals. One of their sons ran away from the village and engaged in a hunt in the
forest but had unfortunately lost his way while doing so. As the council of chiefs negotiated
a peace treaty, the disorientated young boy found northern pole star in the sky after moving
back a brush in the forest.

China:
Dou Mou is the Chinese Goddess of the North Star. Dou Mou’s themes are death, ghosts,
divination and health. Her symbols are the sun, moon and stars. To this day, people invoke
Dou Mou to protect spirits of departed loved ones and to safeguard the living from sickness.
From Her heavenly domain between the sun and the moon, Dou Mou records each birth and
death, and she is the patroness of fortune-tellers.

6. How did the ancient people come up with

the names for the constellations?
- They named the constellations after their mythological heroes and legends. So, behind
every constellation there is a story. For example, to the ancient Greeks, Orion was a great
hunter. He was the son of Neptune (god of the sea). But the same stars were considered to
depict Osiris by the Egyptians. Each different culture developed their own interpretation.