{"id":57541,"date":"2024-04-11T13:45:29","date_gmt":"2024-04-11T13:45:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/07cdeeb6-6ac7-49c5-b267-5fd7e3214e84"},"modified":"2024-04-11T14:08:41","modified_gmt":"2024-04-11T14:08:41","slug":"what-do-stars-look-like-up-close-we-asked-an-astronomer-how-they-know-what-stars-are-really-like","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/rss_feed\/what-do-stars-look-like-up-close-we-asked-an-astronomer-how-they-know-what-stars-are-really-like\/","title":{"rendered":"What do stars look like up close? We asked an astronomer how they know what stars are really like"},"content":{"rendered":"

What does a star really look like, and how do astronomers know? <\/p>

By <\/p>

Published: Thursday, 11 April 2024 at 13:45 PM<\/p>

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Since we can’t actually travel to a star and put a spacecraft in orbit around it, how could it be possible to know what stars look like up close?<\/p>

Luckily, astronomers have a great example of a star right in our own backyeard.<\/p>

The best example that we have to show us what a star<\/a> looks like up close is our own Sun.<\/p>

From space, where the Earth\u2019s atmosphere doesn\u2019t affect the view, the Sun appears as an extremely bright, slightly yellow, disk.<\/p>

Coronal mass ejections captured by NASA’s Solar Dynamic Observatory in June 2013. Credit: NASA\/SDO<\/figcaption><\/figure>

This can be seen in many images taken in Earth orbit, or from the Moon, for example.<\/p>

This is just how other normal stars would look up close. They would look like our Sun.<\/p>

Stars emit light over a whole range of wavelengths (or colours).<\/p>

The wavelength where the amount of light peaks, which depends on the star\u2019s temperature, determines its apparent colour.<\/p>

So, stars cooler than the Sun will appear redder, while those hotter will appear white or even blue.<\/p>