It’s a starry night every night. When the sun sets and the sky turns dark you see small specks of light break through the sometimes pitch black sky. These bits of lights are what we call stars. They are one of the most beautiful things you will see in the night sky and they burn brightly even though we might only see a gentle light from here. Stars have a complicated process to be made, some are small and so are big. Some shine more intensely, and other could give off only a small amount of light. Stars are the only bits of light we get during the night, we cannot always see ALL of them we might only be able to see 4 or 5  because the city lights block us from looking at how beautiful the sky can be at night. But if you happen to live away from the city or any place that doesn't emit a lot of light, you might be able to see the millions of stars that are only a small part of the universe. The following is some information about these beautiful cosmic creations that you may or may not know.

These amazing bits of light are formed in a somewhat complicated process. First dust clouds that are found around galaxies get a turbulence that allows them to come together and create knots with enough mass so that the dust and gas can begin to collapse. All the material in the center begins to heat up, also known as a protostar, and becomes what is known as the heart of the star. This process can also make the combination of dust to split into blobs which is why stars so  scattered throughout the galaxy. With time this mixture becomes a star, but not all dust and gas is used for stars, some can be used for planets or asteroids. This is how all stars form, but why do some shine more brightly than others? Well this is because of the size of the stars and also because of how far away we are from a star. Bigger stars give off more light while smaller stars give off less light. A huge misconception that people have is that when we see stars here on earth we might say some stars are brighter because they are bigger, which is true but we don't actually know if it's really bigger than other stars. This is because some stars are further away from Earth than others which is why some may appear brighter. In the end there are two possible solutions to why some stars are brighter than others, one is because a star could be bigger than another star but also the “brighter star” could be closer than the other star making it look bigger but it's actually not.

Us, here in the Solar System have a star that gives us light and heat to survive and that star is the Sun. The term “sun” is used to describe a star that has planets orbiting around them. The sun plays a big part to us because it’s the center of our solar system. A solar system is a group of planets along with their moons revolving around a sun. We live in a solar system, since earth and other planets revolve around our sun. Which means that if there are many other solar systems in the galaxy, then our star isn’t the only one in the universe that has planets revolving around them. There are other stars somewhere in the universe that fulfill the same role as our star and who knows maybe it even provides heat and light to other life forms. Our sun is approximately 4.6 billion years old now, its been shining bright for a very long time now although average lifespan for a star like the suns is 10 billion years, if you do the math the sun will continue to shine for the next 5.4 billion years.

Our stars have been studies for many years now, ever since we began to look at stars we have wondered what they mean, what they are, why are there so many. People began to give groups of stars that had a certain pattern, which are also called constellations, very special names. Some of us know some of these constellations like Aquarius, Pegasus, Draco, or Leo. Sm of them might sound familiar because they are zodiac signs. Based on your birthday you get assigned a constellation that is said to define your personality, traits, and attitude towards other people. This is something that most americans know of or believe in but another thing some believe in is that it's rude to point at stars. An ancient belief tells us that the stars could actually be gods looking down at us and pointing at them would be the equivalent to pointing at a good which is completely disrespectful and rude in some sense. One final belief on stars that I would like to share is that although counting stairs is a good way to past the time it is said it could also bring bad luck or if you make it to 100 stars you die.  These are some crazy belief and legends people have heard of or created, and some we can be familiar too.

To finish of, stars are one of the world's most beautiful creations. Sometime they are misunderstood or stand on different interpretations based on different people. There creation/ formation is complicated, the number of them is super high, there patterns are admired, and their light shines on us and many other planets to help us find answers within ourselves. So maybe take me time in a warm summer night, go outside and look up at the sky you might not see many stars if you live in a city but just imagine what the sky would look like, a complete black canvas with white, shiny, and bright specks of light.